


You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Wants You Dead

by SaskiaKieranLuthor



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Bisexual Lena Luthor, Character Death, Chuck AU, Eventual Smut, F/F, It's hot, Kara is a computer dork, Lesbian Kara Danvers, Slow Burn, Spies, They just sit next to a candle for a while, and lena is a sexy femme fatale, and socially awkward af, brief Lolsen, fake dating au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:47:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 194,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26193652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaskiaKieranLuthor/pseuds/SaskiaKieranLuthor
Summary: “What should I do if she runs?” She asked quietly.She pulled open the door to find Kara standing in the entryway, dressed in a dark blue button up and burgundy slacks, her blonde hair falling loosely around her shoulders in waves, flowers in hand. Kara gave her a charming smile.“Kill her.”She hung up the phone and smiled back at Kara.***Kara is a loveable dork, down on her luck. When an old friend sends her an email encoded with government secrets, she's thrust into the world of spies and espionage.Lena is a CIA assassin charged with protecting Kara until the government secrets can be removed from her head, by posing as Kara's girlfriend in order to stay close to her.But will something more bloom between them? Can they stay ahead of all the people who want what's in Kara's head?Or: The 'Chuck' AU.
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 352
Kudos: 1209





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been wanting to write this basically since I joined the fandom. Chuck is one of my all time favourite shows, and Kara and Lena just fit so well in their dynamic. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

Kara checked the batteries in her flashlight as she crept through the darkened house, Winn trailing behind her. She could hear the pounding music from the courtyard and knew that the party going on outside would provide the perfect cover for their exfil. 

She motioned to the window and, as Winn moved past her to unlatch it, she reached into the closet for her go-bag, opening it to check that all her items were secure. She was zipping it closed when she heard footsteps approaching.

“Someone’s coming!” Winn whispered, “We’re blown!” 

She turned to face the door, ready for anything. She heard Winn gulp next to her.

The door swung open and the room was bathed in light. 

“Seriously, Kara? What are you doing in here?” Alex stood in the doorway looking exasperated. “Are you hiding from your own birthday party?”

Kara gripped the flashlight in her hands and avoided her sister’s gaze. “Yeah, see here’s the thing, Alex. Winn and I don’t really feel like we belong...at _my_ party, because...uh...we don’t really know anyone…uh...because they’re all your friends…who are all doctors…” she trailed off, still staring at the floor.

“Yeah, doctors who don’t really get our jokes,” Winn chimed in.

“Well, your jokes.” Kara corrected.

“Fine, my jokes.”

Alex sighed. “Kara. I have invited real, live women here, _for you._ So _please_ , let’s go. Winn, you stay here.”

Kara slumped her shoulders, pushed her glasses higher up her nose, and walked out of the room behind Alex, shooting Winn a dejected expression. He raised a fist in solidarity.

Alex pushed her through the crowd of people in the courtyard of their apartment building,”You’re going to do great, ok? You are funny, you are smart, you’re handsome! You’ve got this!”

Alex’s girlfriend, Kelly came up to the pair and handed them each a drink. “Okay. I’ve identified some quality candidates for Kara, so let’s go meet them!” She reached up and straightened Kara’s tie. “Did you have to wear your Nerd Herd outfit? Not that it isn’t cute, but for a first impression…” 

Kara shrugged and allowed herself to be shepherded over to a bleach blonde, whom Kelly introduced as Leslie. She smiled nervously at the woman.

“You must be Kara, I’ve heard so much about you,” Leslie said, eyeing her outfit. “Are you in a costume?”

Kara looked down at her outfit. Black chinos and Chucks, white button up and grey tie, with her pocket protector and Nerd Herd ID attached. “No. I work for the Nerd Herd.”

“The Nerd Herd? That’s adorable. What do you really want to do, though?”

Kara shifted anxiously. “Working on my five-year plan, just need to choose a font.”

Leslie laughed and swatted her arm flirtatiously, “Oh! What happened here? Did you hurt your hand?”

Kara looked down at her hands, to her fingers that were wrapped in bandages. “Oh! No, that’s from Call of Duty. The controller chafes after several hours of use.”

Leslie left shortly after that.

Another blonde named Gayle took her place at the behest of Alex. “So, Alex tells me you went to NCU?”

Kara winced. “Yes, that is _technically_ correct.”

“I went there too! What was your major?”

“Engineering.” Kara glanced around the courtyard, looking for any means of escape. She did not want to be here, talking with these people about any of these things. 

“Oh my gosh! I knew this great guy who was an engineer. He ran track...and I think he was a gymnast too!”

Kara sighed. “James Olsen. Yeah, I knew him too.”

“Oh cool, what’s he doing these days?”

“I think he’s an accountant.”

Gayle continued to reminisce about James and NCU and Kara wished she could drown herself in the courtyard fountain. She caught Alex’s eye across the way, who motioned for her to pay attention to the woman in front of her.

“...just the coolest. So, do you have a girlfriend?” Gayle asked.

“No...uh...well, I did. Back at NCU. Her name was Lucy. We met freshman year. I remember when I met her, I was walking across the quad, and she was on her way to an Economics lecture when her bag ripped and it was like something out of a movie. I stopped to help her with her stuff and we did that kind of...movie thing where we bonked heads, and the rest was history.”

***

Kelly walked over to Alex, who was staring over at Kara in disbelief. “How’s she doing?”

Alex chugged her beer. “Not great. She’s talking about Lucy again.”

Kelly hung her head and sighed.

***

“So there I was, kicked out of NCU, Lucy was with James...I guess she thought he was more exciting…” She trailed off, looking around to find that Gayle had left, somewhere mid-story. She sighed. At least she didn’t have to pretend to be interested anymore. She finished her drink and wandered back inside for a refill.

***

Kara sat on the couch and unwrapped the bandages on her thumbs, finding the blisters had calloused over. Alex came over and sat next to her, handing her a beer. She shot her a tight smile.

“Thanks for my party,” she said, politely. “By the way, your 7-layer dip? It tasted like eight.”

“Kara, can I tell you something?” Alex asked.

“It really was eight layers?”

“Even though they may ask, no woman really wants to hear about an old girlfriend. It’s depressing, okay? NCU was a long time ago, you need to move on. It’s time.”

Kara sighed, “Do we really have to have this conversation again?”

“Well, we’ve rehearsed it enough.” Alex said with a laugh.

“Okay, well I’ll just get over Lucy tomorrow then.” She got up and walked to her room, leaving her sister looking exasperated. She walked into her bedroom to find Winn playing X-box on her bed. She sat down next to him and relayed the events of the night.

“Hey, cheer up Kara, at least you talked to some women, that’s a start. Doing better than me.” 

An email notification popped up on Kara’s computer. 

“Wow, talk about a blast from the past. James Olsen remembered your birthday.”

Kara snapped her head up, “What?”

“James? The guy who got you kicked out of school, the guy who stole your girlfriend, remember him?”

Kara shot him a look. “Yeah, Winn. I think I remember him.” She moved over to her computer and opened the email. A text box popped up on the screen:

_**The terrible troll raises his sword.** _

Winn looked over her shoulder. “What is it?”

“It’s Zork. You remember Zork, the old text-based video game? Well, James and I programmed our own version of it back at NCU, using a TRS-80.”

“Wow. You guys were really cool.” He sneered.

She wasn’t paying attention. “Now if I could only remember what was in my hero’s satchel…”

He looked at her blankly.

“The weapons I would use to kill the terrible troll,” she explained.

“...Right. Yeah, you know what, you’re still really cool,” he snickered.

She stared at the screen, thinking. Then she clapped him on the back, “And you’re going home. Pedal safe!” 

She sat at her computer, lost in thought, as Winn gathered up his belongings and left. What had she had in her satchel? Suddenly it came to her and she began to type:

_**Attack troll with nasty knife.** _

The textbox faded away and suddenly thousands of images began flashing across the screen. Completely random things; some innocuous like flowers, cars, animals, and tourist attractions, and some less so, like explosions, executions, crashes, and gunfire. They kept flashing across the screen and Kara couldn’t look away, just sat staring at the monitor until finally the screen went black. Kara’s eyes burned and her head felt like it had been microwaved. She slumped back in her chair and passed out.

***

She woke the next morning on the floor in front of her computer with Winn standing over her, calling her name. She winced at the sound of his voice and squinted at the light pouring through her windows.

“Dude, you okay?”

Kara sat up and rolled her neck. “Yeah...yeah I think so...my head hurts though.”

“What happened last night?” Winn asked, looking bewildered.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing…did you spike the punch?” Winn helped her to her feet and she followed him out of the room.

“Something goes wrong and you immediately blame me! After all these years, where’s the trust? ….And yes I did.”

Kara followed him to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. Her head felt as though it had been run over by a truck. She turned to Winn, who was raiding her fridge, “I’m gonna grab a shower, but I’ll be quick and then we can head out.” He simply raised a thumbs up, his mouth occupied with leftovers.

She walked to the bathroom and turned on the water and the shower radio. The traffic report came on as she was stepping into the stream. 

“...the 101 is clear to National City Parkway, but watch out for traffic near the airport, as security is checking all vehicles….”

Suddenly Kara froze and her eyes rolled back in her head. She saw flashes of images like the ones she’d seen on her computer last night, but these were accompanied by new images. A cop car, blueprints, a hotel, a satellite projection of downtown National City. 

Then it was gone. She stood under the showerhead, staring blankly ahead for a moment. 

_What the heck was that?_

She brushed it off and quickly finished her shower.

***

As Kara walked out to the car, head splitting, she tried to ignore Winn rambling about his Call of Duty rampage from the night before. 

"...and I'm like ‘Dude just give me the sniper rifle and I’ll take care of it’ but the guy won’t give me the sniper rifle so I had to throw my frag grenade--”

“WINN PLEASE!” She shouted, startling her friend. “As much as I would love to talk video games, I’ve got a splitting headache and I just…in fact, do you think you could drive today?” She tossed him the keys to the company car, a 2015 Honda Civic with Nerd Herd wrap on it.

“Whoa are you serious? You’re gonna let me drive?”

“It’s a company car, Winn.”

“It’s not just a company car, okay? A whip is a whip, homegirl! This baby is sitting on chrome! ….Or plastic, as it were.”

“Just do me a favour and stay off the 405, okay? Because the cops are in a phased...deployment…” She frowned. Why had she said that? Why did she _know_ that?

Winn looked at her blankly for a moment. He shrugged, “Okay. Thanks for the tip.” They pulled away from the curb and headed to work.

***

Kara got to her desk and checked through the computer emergency logs from the night before. There were a ton of new requests for service, as well as drop offs. Apparently there was a new virus going around. She looked over the papers and examined one of the computers that had been brought in. The hard drive was completely fried. 

She gathered her fellow Nerds. “Okay guys, today is going to be a very busy day! We’ve got a new computer virus on our hands. They’re calling this one the Irene Demova virus.”

Winn snickered.

“Yes, the Serbian porn star, Irene Demova. Lonely-guy call volume is going to be very high. This is a nasty one guys, okay? It’s a computer killer.” She opened up the store display laptop to demonstrate. She entered Irene Demova’s website and suddenly popups of porn displays sprang up all over the screen before they warped and the screen went black, the internal hardware smoking slightly.

“So that’s what we’re dealing with. Let’s do it to it!” She headed back to the office with Winn, passing by the wall of TVs that were playing the news. She paused to watch.

“...the Major General will be arriving later today, to deliver a speech at the security brief tomorrow evening. The Major General has drawn criticism for his support of--”

Kara looked at the face of the Army officer on the TV when she began to see the flashes of images again. Random pictures, then a flight number, an airplane, a manifest, a room full of intelligence personnel. 

“He’s already here, he landed last night!” She exclaimed.

Winn looked at her, confused. “Who’s already here?”

She turned to him, her brow furrowed. “...I...I don’t know…” She frowned and continued back to the office.

***

She was standing behind the Nerd Herd desk a few hours later, phone tucked in between her ear and shoulder, humming to the hold music. Winn stood next to her at the desk making a paper clip chain. 

“Stop the presses! Who is that?” He exclaimed suddenly. “It’s Vicki Vale!"

Kara was only half-paying attention, her nose buried in the file of the current client she was trying to reach. She began to half-heartedly beatbox, “Vicki Vale, Vick-Vi-Vicki Vale, Vickety-Vickety, Vicki Vale, Vick-Vi-Vicki--”

She glanced up and dropped the phone and file.

Standing in front of her desk was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. She was a few inches shorter than Kara, with pale skin, long black hair, red lips, a jawline that could cut diamonds, and the most perfectly shaped eyebrows possibly in existence. 

The woman smirked at Kara. “I hope I’m not interrupting.” She had some kind of accent that Kara couldn’t place.

“...No, n-not at all.” Kara stuttered out. “That uh--it’s from Batman!” She wanted to throw herself into traffic.

The woman grinned, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Because that makes it better?”

Kara forced out a nervous laugh. The woman was staring at her intently, and Kara noticed that her eyes were different colours, one green and one blue. She tried to think of what to say next, but her brain was stuck somewhere between fainting and running away. Luckily, Winn chimed in next to her.

“I’m Winn and this is Kara.” 

Kara gave an awkward wave.

“Lena,” the woman replied, eyes still fixed on Kara.

Slowly, Kara’s brain shifted into gear. She cleared her throat. “Uh, how can I help you, Lena?”

The woman placed her phone down on the counter. “I’m here about this.”

Kara looked at the phone in relief. Finally, something she was comfortable handling. “Oh yeah, the Inteli-cell. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, this model has a little screw back here that comes loose.” She pulled her posi-driver out of her pocket. “Just give it a couple quick turns, and there you go. Good as new, no problem.” She handed the phone back to the woman, who was still staring at her with interest.

“Wow. You geeks are good,” she said with a smile.

Winn and Kara shared a look. “Nerds,” she said quickly. “I mean, not that it’s a big deal, but you know, Nerd Herd.” She motioned to the sign on the desk, cringing inwardly. What was she doing? Why was she correcting this gorgeous woman? The phone rang, breaking her out of her thoughts. “I’m so sorry. Just one second.” She turned her back to answer the call and by the time she’d hung up, the woman was gone.

Winn walked over to where she had been standing. “Dude. She left you her card!” He said excitedly, sniffing it quickly. _Weirdo._ Kara thought, shaking her head. Her thoughts never left the woman for the rest of the day. 

***

“I don’t understand, Kara. Why wouldn’t you call this girl?” Winn asked as they traipsed through the courtyard to Kara’s apartment.

“Oh, I don’t know, _did you see her?_ ” She retorted.

“Yes, oh man, yes. Which is why I will repeat the question: Why wouldn’t you call this girl??”

She sighed as she unlocked her front door. 

“Because I live on planet Earth, Winn.”

She opened the door, switched on the light, and froze. A figure stood across from her, dressed all in black, masked and gloved, holding her computer. She would have thought they were a ninja, if she thought such things existed in real life. The not-ninja stood still, holding the tower.

Kara reached a tentative hand out, “Please...not...the computer.”

The not-ninja set the computer down gently and then settled into a martial arts stance. Kara and Winn looked at each other, then Winn immediately began throwing everything he could get his hands on at the thief. The thief picked up the computer and Kara started toward them.

“No wait, give me that!” She yelled. The thief tossed her the computer tower. She caught it gingerly, and then her legs were swept out from under her, computer flying into the air. The thief caught it and set it on a hanging shelf, as Winn ran at them, screaming bloody murder. The thief caught him around the middle and kicked his legs out from under him, knocking him to the floor on top of Kara.

A crashing sound caused them all to look around. The hanging shelf had fallen, and the computer with it, the glass casing breaking open and scattering the guts of the computer all over the floor. Kara whimpered at the sight. She caught a glimpse of the hard drive and saw that it looked like it had been put in the microwave. _What the--?_ Her attention was caught by the sound of a door slamming. The thief had run off.

She sat up and looked at the mess of computer parts on the floor and the shelf hanging off of the wall.

She looked at Winn. “Didn’t _you_ hang that shelf?”

***

Outside, the thief hopped into a black Jaguar F-Type and sped away, pulling the mask off of her face to reveal pale skin and heterochromatic eyes.

“Dammit.” She muttered to herself as she drove across the city.

***

The next day Kara was picking through the pieces of her computer in the Nerd Herd backroom, her coworkers Brainy and Nia hovering beside her.

“It’s no use, I’ve been all through it,” Nia said sadly. “This hard drive was...murdered.” She covered the computer with a white sheet dramatically.

Kara stared at the melted hard drive and wondered briefly if James' email had caused it. Were the email and the bizarre flashes were connected to it? 

“What if you were the unwitting target of a ninja vendetta, and he returns tonight to strangle you with his nunchuks?” Brainy asked, flatly.

Kara looked at him, mouth hanging open. “...That’s super, Brainy. Thanks for thinking outside the box on that one. And here I thought I couldn’t get any more freaked out.” 

He merely winked at her.

She furrowed her brow at him. “I’m just gonna go buy some new locks at Costco.”

She walked into the store and began looking for locks, but was having trouble finding them in the labyrinth of products and displays. She looked for an employee but couldn’t find anyone. Finally, she happened upon another customer and figured she’d see if they knew.

“Excuse me, sir? I’m sorry to bother you, but do you know where they sell the--”

The man turned to look at her and her mind flashed again. A Serbian passport, explosions, a bomb diagram, the Major General from yesterday, a detonator. 

She opened her eyes to see the man still staring at her. “What do you want?” He asked forcefully.

Her breathing increased and she could feel her heart pounding in her ears. This guy was a Serbian bombmaker. A demolitions expert, to be exact. What was he doing _here_? How did she know who he was??

“Um...uh, no sorry. Sorry. Nothing. Nothing at all.” She stuttered out, backing away from him. “I was just, uh, looking for the--” she glanced up at nothing, “--wow, look at that--” She took off running down the aisle and out the door, never stopping until she reached the safety of the Nerd Herd desk.

***

Sitting in her car in the Nerd Herd parking lot, Lena saw the blonde sprint from the Costco back to the tech shop. 

“I have eyes on her right now.” She said into her phone. “And like I said, the computer was destroyed, beyond repair.”

“Okay,” said the voice on the other end of the line. “It’s done. I want you in the air in an hour.”

“But what if she has an external drive, a backup--”

“It’s over, Lena. The NSA is stepping in. James was CIA, he was our guy, and he burned us….Henshaw is on his way out.” The woman paused. “You’re being recalled.”

Lena scoffed. “Because of Hank? He’s a burnout.”

“He’s a killer, Lena.” Lena rolled her eyes. “I want you to listen to me, Luthor. What happened with James, you couldn’t have known. You couldn’t have stopped him.”

“But I can fix it,” she growled. “If there’s a backup, I’ll find it. Just give me 12 hours.” She hung up without waiting for a reply.

***

Kara sat at her desk with her head down on it, rubbing her temples between her palms. “I’m losing my mind, I’m losing my mind, I’m losing my mind, I’m losing my--”

The bell on her desk rang. “Winn, not now.” She slapped her palm down on the hand already on the bell. It was significantly smaller and less hairy than she was expecting. She popped her head up and saw the beautiful woman from yesterday, Lena.

“Hi! Hi! Uh, phone trouble again?” She asked, excitedly.

“Yeah actually, I’m not sure I’m able to receive calls, because I never got one from you.” She smirked up at the blonde, who stared at her in awe. “I’m sorry I had to leave so quickly yesterday, I had an appointment with a realtor. I just moved here.”

Kara smiled at her, “Oh well, welcome!”

“Thanks,” the woman grinned at her. “And um, I don’t really know anyone here, so I was wondering if you would show me around. I mean, if you’re free?” The woman twisted a lock of her raven hair, looking up at Kara through long eyelashes.

Kara was speechless. Luckily, Winn chose that moment to help out.

“Oh she is free! She’s got nothing but time on her hands, she is _very_ available!”

Kara turned to him slowly and shot him a _‘wtf dude’_ look, before turning back to Lena. “It appears that my schedule is wide open,” she said with a nervous laugh.

The other woman shot her a beautiful smile. “Great! Maybe tonight? We could have dinner?”

Kara panicked internally for a moment before answering as confidently as she could. “Sure! How’s 7? I’ll pick you up.”

***

Kara walked into the apartment she shared with her sister and Kelly to find them sitting on the couch watching Grey’s. 

“Alex, Kelly, don’t freak out. I have some news.”

The pair looked up at her expectantly. Winn came bounding into the house, sliding to a stop beside her.

“Kara’s got a date!!” He shouted with a shit-eating grin plastered across his face.

“What? Who?” Alex asked in disbelief.

“Way to go, Kara. That’s awesome!” Kelly added.

They jumped up off the couch to help her get ready. 

***

Across town, in a spacious penthouse apartment, Lena was making her own preparations. She strapped a sheath of throwing knives to her ankle, donned her black kevlar bustier, and wound her lush dark hair into a chignon, before sticking two long, poison-tipped pins through it.

She pulled on tight black jeans and a low cut floral top, and was lacing up tall, black boots, when her phone rang.

“Luthor.” She answered.

“What’s your status?” Came the woman’s voice from the other end of the line.

“She’s picking me up for a date,” she said, checking the mag in her pistol.

“You’re on your own for this one, Lena. I can’t help you if something goes wrong.”

Lena paused. “I don’t know about this girl, Marsdin. She doesn’t seem like a spy.”

“Nice girls aren’t sent government secrets, Lena.” Marsdin replied.

Lena heard a knock at her door, and she slammed the clip back into her pistol, tucking it into her waistband as she headed to the door.

“What should I do if she runs?” She asked quietly.

She pulled open the door to find Kara standing in the entryway, dressed in a dark blue button up and burgundy slacks, her blonde hair falling loosely around her shoulders in waves, flowers in hand. Kara gave her a charming smile.

“Kill her.”

She hung up the phone and smiled back at Kara.

***


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Lena have their first date, but their night takes a terrifying turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh guys, I was so overwhelmed by the support of the first chapter, so thank you all for your lovely comments and kudos!! I hope this continues to live up to your expectations. I welcome all comments and criticisms, because I want this to be the best it can be for yall, so don't be shy 🥰

Kara shifted nervously outside of Lena’s door. It wasn’t too late, she hadn’t knocked yet, she could still make a break for it. Maybe claim a stomach bug or another not-ninja attack. She shifted the flowers to her other hand. Alex had shoved them into her hands as she was leaving with a _“Girls like flowers, Kara.”_ She fidgeted with her glasses. No, it was too late now. She was here, and she’d have to find something to talk about with this pale goddess. She shook her head at the absurdity of the situation and knocked on the door.

As it opened Kara looked up and smiled at the other woman as she froze internally. She looked beautiful, her raven hair pulled back in a twist, her red lips perfectly painted, her hourglass figure accentuated by the tight blouse and pants that hugged her body. She felt her mouth run dry. The woman hung up her phone call and smiled at her. 

Kara swallowed and thrust the flowers out to her. “These are for you.”

“Oh, they’re lovely, thank you! Let me just find something to put them in, and then we can go.” She turned back to her apartment and found a vase under the sink. As she finished arranging the bouquet, she turned back to Kara, who was still standing in the entryway, looking nervous.

“There!” She said with a smile. “Thank you for that, they really brighten the place up!”

Kara merely smiled in return. She cleared her throat. “Right. So, uh, should we go?” She reached up to fidget with her glasses again.

Lena found her nervousness adorable. “Sure, let’s go.”

Kara led her out of the penthouse and down to where the Nerd Herder was parked in the street. “So what are you feeling? Italian? Chinese? Mexican?”

“Mexican!” Lena exclaimed. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had good Mexican food.”

“I know just the place.” Kara drove them to her favourite local Mexican restaurant, mariachi music assaulting their ears as they entered. She kept glancing over at the shorter woman, still unbelieving that she was on a date with her. Soon, they were seated and Lena began to ask her about her life, her family, her job. She tried to answer as best she could without letting her nervousness come across, but it was difficult. Her hands shook as she sipped her margarita.

“...So, you live with your sister?” Lena asked, no judgment in her voice.

“Yeah, her and her girlfriend, Kelly. She’s a psychiatrist. Can’t wait for you to meet her, so she can tell me if you’re a psycho or not.” She joked.

Lena laughed. “Oh ha ha, very funny.”

“Well, what can I say, I’m a comedian.” 

“Clearly. Which is good, because I am not funny. At all.” Lena responded.

“Is that your big secret?” Kara asked, puzzled. “Because I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what’s wrong with you--”

“Oh believe me, plenty.” Lena cut in.

“--And I was thinking, ‘either she’s a cannibal, or she’s really not that funny.’” Kara continued. “And I was kinda hoping for cannibal because I’ve never met one before.”

Lena gave a genuine laugh at that. “Well, I’m not a cannibal. But I did just get out of a long-term relationship, so I may come with baggage,” she said shyly.

“Well, I could be your very own baggage handler,” Kara said suggestively. She wanted to slap herself. _What the heck was that Danvers, you weirdo._ She looked up at Lena, who was looking at her with her eyebrow raised. She hurried to cover the awkward moment. “So this person--the ex, they’re the reason you moved?”

Thankfully, Lena glossed over the moment and answered, “Yeah, after I realised that all of my friends were his friends and that everything about D.C. reminded me of...Jimmy...I needed a change.”

Kara nodded. “Yeah...wow, really? You went out with a ‘Jimmy’?” she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Lena laughed. “Well what about you? Any skeletons in your closet...any secrets...any women?” she asked seductively.

Kara swallowed. “Um, yeah. There was someone…” The topic of Lucy was fast approaching and she didn’t want to screw this up. She remembered Alex’s advice from the other night and hurried to change course. “...but that’s all over with now, and the terms of her restraining order are very specific.”

Lena let out a loud laugh. “I like you, Kara.”

Kara gave her a lopsided smile. Had she really managed to charm this woman? She felt the butterflies in her stomach kick up a notch.

***

Kara led them through downtown National City, chatting about this and that. She told Lena about Winn and The Nerd Herd. Lena listened intently, smiling and laughing at all of Kara’s dumb jokes. 

“So where are we going?” Lena asked, looking around. 

“Well, do you like music?” 

She shrugged. “I guess.”

“You guess? Well, what’s your favourite band?” Kara asked, shocked. Lena merely smiled sheepishly and shrugged, as they walked across a bridge. The blonde glanced down at a motorcade with a police escort that was passing under “God, I’m not funny and I don’t listen to music, this must be the worst date you’ve ever been on,” Lena said with a self-conscious laugh. She turned back to Kara who had stopped and was staring over the side of the bridge.

Kara was hit with flashes of images again. The Serbian bombmaker. Blueprints. A hotel. The Major General. A license plate. A map of downtown. She shook her head as the flashes ended and stood silently, trying to make sense of it all. Lena’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

“...I was waiting for you to say no,” she said with a laugh.

“What?” She looked at Lena blankly. “Sorry, sorry I kinda zoned out there for a second…” Lena’s words finally made their way into her brain. “Oh! No! I’ve-I’ve had much much worse dates--experiences with--with women, overall. In eleventh grade actually--” 

“Eleventh grade, really? You have to go back that far?” Lena laughed, as they continued walking.

“I don’t really date all that much!” Kara defended. 

She led Lena into a downstairs bar where loud rock music could be heard playing. Lena went to the bar and got them some drinks, then joined Kara on the couches near the back of the room. They sat, sipping their drinks and enjoying the music, smiling over at each other every now and then.

Lena allowed herself to relax for a moment. She couldn’t see how this dorky blonde was supposed to be some kind of intelligence analyst or master spy. She could barely maintain eye contact with Lena. She looked around the room, admiring the posters and artwork lining the walls. As her eyes passed over the door, she saw three men in suits come down the stairs and spread out around the room. She glanced them over. They were obviously feds, probably Henshaw’s guys, coming to bring Kara in--or worse, kill her.

She grabbed Kara’s hand and pulled her up. “Let’s dance!” She heard the blonde try to protest but ignored her, leading her out into the crowd and pulling her close. She looked into the blonde’s face and found sheer terror. _Yeah. Master spy,_ she thought to herself wryly.

She kept an eye on the men as they circled the room. She saw one spot her and speak into his comms. The others began to move in. She circled behind Kara and wrapped her arms around the blonde's waist, pulling her close to grind on her. She dropped low, trailing her hands down Kara’s body. As she dropped, she pulled a throwing knife out of the sheath on her leg and sent it at one of the feds, hitting him in the leg, bringing him to the ground. Rising from her position, she circled back around to Kara's front, trailing her fingertips across her collarbone. She began moving her body in time with the music, reaching her arms up around her head, and seductively pulling the poison-tipped pins out of her hair, letting her raven locks fall around her shoulders. 

The two remaining feds approached her from either side. She whipped her hair around and flung her arms out, releasing the pins. She heard two grunts as they hit their intended targets. The two agents fell to the ground, pins jammed in their throats. Lena pulled Kara close and looked around the room over the blonde’s shoulder for more agents. She spotted a tall black man in a suit, leaning against the railing near the entrance, staring at her. 

_Henshaw_.

She grabbed Kara’s hand and pulled her out of the bar and down the block toward the Nerd Herder.

“Hey, what’s the rush?” Kara asked, as Lena pulled her down the street.

“Give me your keys!” She glanced back to see if they were being followed.

“Um, look, not to be a butt, but the company really only wants Nerds -- er...employees driving--”

Lena snatched the keys out of her hands and unlocked the doors, climbing into the driver’s seat. “Kara, get in!”

“Hey! You can’t--”

“GET IN THE CAR RIGHT NOW!” Lena shouted, spotting a government issued SUV coming barreling down the street towards them.

Kara jumped in and Lena threw the car into reverse, smashing the gas pedal to the floor. She weaved through traffic backwards, whipping her head back and forth between the rear window, and the oncoming SUV.

“Lena, what is going on?!” Kara shouted, terrified. “What is happ-- _Lena you’re not even looking!_ ” She looked up and saw the SUV weaving through traffic, heading towards them. “W-wait, who are these guys? What do they want?” 

The SUV drew closer, it’s engine more powerful than the little Civic. It gained and gained until it smashed into the front of the Nerd Herder. Lena caught Henshaw’s eye and glared, ignoring Kara’s cries of, “Oh my god! Oh my god!” Henshaw responded by ramming the car again.

Lena glanced into the rearview mirror. She needed to get off this straightaway. “Tell me when to turn!”

Kara looked back, “Uh! Turn left in 5 seconds!”

“Your left or my left?

“What?”

“Too late!” She turned the wheel and the car sailed down a staircase and onto the street below, Kara screaming the entire way. They came to a stop in the driveway of a tall building, both women panting heavily. Lena turned to the girl next to her. “Kara listen to me, those men are from the NSA, and they’re after you!”

Kara looked at her in shock. “Me?! Wh-What? Why? I’m nobody! I’m the supervisor of a Nerd Herd! Maybe one day I’ll be Assistant Manager, and I don’t even know if I want that job!” She rambled on, “I’m sorry, that’s not your problem…but _that_ is!!” 

Lena turned to see the SUV come barreling down the street at them. The vehicle smashed into her side of the car, shoving her over onto Kara. She regained her senses. Her ears were ringing. She shook her head to clear it. “Get out of the car, Kara! Let’s go!” She pushed the passenger door open and shoved the blonde out, climbing out behind her. She pulled Kara down the street toward a tall building ahead. Kara tripped over the dislodged bumper of the Nerd Herder, and faceplanted on the ground. 

Lena looked back and saw the SUV fast approaching again. She looked down at Kara, who would soon be roadkill if she didn’t move. She glanced up at the post near the edge of the driveway and saw a sign that read “Emergency Barrier” and looked down to see the indents of where the poles would pop up, just feet away from Kara. The SUV was mere seconds away and the button was too far to get to on foot. She reached into her boot and pulled out a throwing knife, casting it at the button. She ducked down and curled around Kara. 

The posts sprang up as the knife found its target. The SUV smashed into the barrier, showering them in glass and debris.

Lena pulled Kara onto her feet and pulled out her phone. “Request emergency air evac. Track location, we’re on foot.” She looked up and checked to see that the building in front of them had a helipad. Luckily, it did. She grabbed Kara’s hand. “Let’s go!”

They dashed through the building and took the elevator to the roof to wait for a CIA chopper. Lena turned to Kara, who looked pale. “How well do you know James Olsen?” She demanded.

Kara snapped her head up. “How do _you_ know James?”

“We worked together at the CIA.”

“The _what?_ The CIA? James is a spy? James Olsen from Chicago is a spy?”

“A _rogue_ spy.” Lena corrected. “Did he try to contact you?”

Kara shook her head, stunned. “I haven’t heard from James in…” She trailed off and then looked up. “Wait, no. He--He sent me an email.”

Lena whipped around to stare at her. “Did you open it?!”

“Yeah it was--it was a line from Zork!”

“What?!”

“Zork, the video game? It was like a riddle and then I solved it and then there were these pictures--lots and lots of pictures!”

Lena stared at her in disbelief. “You saw them…” _Oh God._ She shook her head, trying to focus. “Uh..your computer, did you back it up? Is there an external drive?”

Kara shook her head. “Can you tell me what’s going on? Was I not supposed to look at those pictures?” But Lena wasn’t looking at her anymore.

She lowered her voice, “Okay. I may have to aim my gun at you, so just don’t freak out.”

Kara just stared at her.

Henshaw came around the corner, wiping blood that was trickling down his forehead. He sighed, “It’s late. I’m tired.” He turned to Lena. “Let’s cut the crap and just give her to me now! She belongs to the NSA.”

Lena whipped out her gun and pointed it at Kara. The blonde gasped and raised her hands. 

“The CIA gets her first!”

Henshaw pulled out his gun and aimed it at Lena, the red dot of his laser scope landing on her forehead, as he began moving toward the pair.

“You come any closer and I’ll shoot.” She threatened.

“Lena…” Kara whispered, “ _I’m freaking out!_ ”

Henshaw took a step closer. “You shoot her, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late snack. I’m thinking pancakes.” He smirked. 

Kara had reached her limit. She turned around to run away and distantly heard Lena call out for her, but she had reached the edge of the helipad and was staring at the hotel across the street, images flashing through her mind once again. The Serbian bombmaker, the hotel, blueprints, the bomb hidden in a serving cart, the Major General.

She turned quickly. “They’re gonna kill him! Stanfield! The General! The General, Stanfield! The NATO guy!”

Lena and Henshaw stared at her in shock. 

Kara shook her head, frustrated. “Look! Something is wrong with me, ok? I don’t know what it is, but something is wrong! I’m remembering things, things I shouldn’t be remembering!”

“Like what?” Henshaw asked.

“I don’t know, uhhh...for example, there was a Serbian demolitions expert at the Costco today. That’s kind of odd, right?” She looked between the two agents. “Look, last week the NSA--" she looked at Henshaw, "--intercepted some blueprints--blueprints of a hotel. _That_ hotel!” She pointed to the hotel behind her. She turned to Lena, “And then the CIA, you guys found a file of schematics of a bomb in Prague. Well, the bomb is in that hotel!!”

Henshaw considered her words and then turned to point his gun at Kara. “She was working with Olsen.”

Lena stepped forward, “No! She opened James’ email.” She turned to Kara. “Kara, those pictures that you saw were encoded with secrets--government secrets! If you saw them, then you know them!”

Kara’s jaw dropped. “But...there were thousands of them…”

Henshaw cut in, “Wait a minute. You’re telling me that _all_ of our secrets are in her head?” He raised his scope to point the laser at her forehead.

Lena nodded, “Kara _is_ the computer.”

Kara shifted her gaze back and forth between them quickly. “What is happening to me?!”

Lena ignored her. “Kara, you need to tell us everything you know about the bomb! Is there time to stop it?”

Kara began to hyperventilate. “Look, guys I can’t help you! Okay? I really wish that I could, but I can’t! Call James, okay? He’s the guy who can save the day, not me--”

“James is dead!” Lena shouted over her panicked ramble. “He died sending you those secrets.”

Kara faltered. “...James is dead?” She looked at Lena and saw it in her eyes. They stood looking at each other for a moment. A gunshot went off.

Henshaw had fired a shot to get their attention. “Yeah and he’s gonna have a lot more company unless you start talking. So, pretty please, can we defuse the bomb now?”

Kara took a deep breath. “According to the schedule, the General is already on stage…”

***

Lena and Henshaw made their way through the hotel, Kara trailing behind them, directing them where to go. They got to the room where the General was speaking and Lena held out her arm, preventing Kara from following. “No, you can’t go in, you’re too valuable!”

Kara pushed her arm out of the way. “You don’t know what you’re looking for, I have to go in.” 

Lena began to protest but Kara pushed past her into the dining hall, Henshaw and Lena following behind. 

“Ok Kara, where is it?” Hank asked Kara looked around the room until she spotted the serving cart like the one she’d seen when she’d flashed. It was sitting in the direct center of the room. She raised a shaky finger to point. “There it is.”

Lena and Henshaw rushed over and pulled the lid off the serving tray, finding a laptop wired to twenty pounds of C-4 inside, a timer counting down from 90 seconds. 

“Oh god,” Henshaw breathed. “Alright, no time to evacuate. Any ideas?”

“Disconnect the laptop?” Lena suggested.

“It’s on an autotrigger, that could cause it to blow.”

Kara stared at the bomb, as they shot ideas back and forth. She looked at the computer, the same type as The Nerd Herd display model. Suddenly she had an idea.

“Okay okay! I have an idea!” She reached for the computer. Henshaw pushed her away.

“That’s not an X-Box. And you’re not an X-Men.” He sneered.

Kara waved him off. “I understand that, but this is a Prizm Express laptop! We sell these in my store. It has a DOS override.” She looked between the two of them, as the clock counted down from 30 seconds. “I think I can do this!”

Lena looked at Henshaw. “She’s our best shot.” 

Henshaw removed his hand from Kara. “Do it."

Kara logged into the override and opened up a search window. “Mr. Bomb, meet Mr. Internet.” She typed in ‘Irene Demova’ into the search box.

Henshaw looked baffled, “She’s looking up porn!”

Kara raised a hand to silence him and hit enter, pulling up the website. The clock counted down:

5…

The screen began to fill with porn displays.

4…

Kara squeezed her eyes shut.

3…

The screen began to warp as the virus kicked in.

2…

The screen went black and the internal hardware began to smoke. The light on the detonator shut off. 

Kara opened her eyes, her chest heaving with adrenaline. “I--I did it.” She laughed. “I did it! I defused a real live bomb!” She began to laugh hysterically, then stopped and went pale. “Oh god...what if I was wrong?” Her face turned green.

Henshaw stood up and clapped her on the back. “Don’t puke on the C-4.”

***

Kara exited the hotel and walked toward where Lena and Henshaw were standing, arguing about something.

“...We don’t know how this works or what triggers it! You can’t just drop her in a think tank, she’ll crack wide open!” Lena was saying in a heated voice.

“Not my job.” Henshaw replied. “I break things, I don’t fix ‘em.”

“And what about _her_ job? Her friends? And what do we do about her sister?”

Kara approached them. “What about my sister? You have to leave my family and my friends out of this!” 

Henshaw shrugged. “We’ll see.”

Kara took a deep breath and set her jaw. “Look, James sent that email to me. I’m the one remembering your secrets, which means you have to listen to me. You need me. I don’t need you. My family stays out of this. Now, I've had a long night. I'm going home.” She turned and walked away.

***

Lena sat up in her seat and checked the time, 7:00 a.m. She’d been tracking Kara all night, but the blonde had settled down on the beach near her apartment, and hadn’t moved for several hours. She sighed and climbed out of the car, bending down to unzip her boots.

She pulled them off and trudged through the sand until she found Kara. The blonde was sitting in the sand, arms wrapped around her knees. She sat down next to the girl.

“There’s nowhere I can run, is there?” Kara asked, without looking at her.

“Not from us,” she responded with a light laugh. Kara didn’t respond, didn’t laugh, didn’t even look at her. She was worried about her mental state. “Talk to me, Kara.”

Kara gazed out at the ocean, a faraway look in her eye. “Yesterday I was working at The Nerd Herd, making $15 an hour fixing computers, and now I have one in my brain. And I can’t figure out why James did this, why he chose me.” She paused and sighed, finally looking at Lena. “What are you gonna do with me? What happens now?”

“For now, you go back to your own life. We’ll protect you, and you’ll work with us.” Lena responded, matter of factly. 

“And my sister? My friends? Are they in danger? I mean, what do I even tell them?”

“Tell them nothing to keep them safe."

Kara sighed and looked down at the sand. She hated lying, especially to Alex.

“I need you to do one more thing for me.” Lena began, looking over at her.

Kara glanced up at her.

_ “Trust me, Kara.” _

The blonde looked into her eyes, one green and one blue, and couldn’t help but smile. Lena smiled back and bumped shoulders with her. Things were uncertain, but she couldn’t deny that she liked the idea of Lena sticking around.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To answer some questions yall had:
> 
> \- I'm going to try to do weekly updates, but bear with me as this is only my second fic. The chapters are also going to be a bit longer from here on out. I split this first one into two parts because I wanted to see if it was worth continuing first. 
> 
> \- I have no idea how long this is going to be or what the plan is lol
> 
> \- To those asking if I'm keeping the original ending from the show, you'll just have to wait and see 👀😏


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara meets someone who may be able to take the Intersect out of her head. Lena has dinner with Kara's family, but it doesn't go as expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Ch.3. I hope yall enjoy. Tbh I've had a hard time trying to find the inspiration to writer after all the bullshit this past week. I hope yall know you are valid and you're not delusional for loving this ship and wanting to see it come to life after 4 years of bait. 
> 
> *sighs heavily* ANYWAY hope this ain't shit! Enjoy!

“So exactly what happened?” Kara asked. She was sitting on the couch in Henshaw’s new apartment. He had moved into a vacant one-bedroom upstairs, adjacent to Kara and Alex’s place. 

“Well, this computer that is now in your brain, it did everything. It’s called The Intersect. After 9/11, the NSA and the CIA were told to play nice, share their intel. This is how we did it. Every scrap of data we had went into this computer. It mined for patterns and chatter, saw things we didn’t. The data was encrypted into thousands of images, which is what you saw. Now all of those secrets that were encoded into these images are in your head. It’s our job to keep you safe until we can find a way to get them out.” Lena explained from beside her on the couch.

“Ok, so how does this work?”

“Basically, Hank and I will be your shadow. We’ll insert ourselves in your life in innocuous ways, so as not to arouse suspicion, and we’ll be able to keep an eye on you.” Lena replied.

“Right, no I get that. But I mean,” she glanced over at Henshaw, who had disassembled his gun and was cleaning it with military precision, “you guys don’t exactly blend in. What am I supposed to tell Alex and Kelly?”

“Well, Hank is going to work with you at The Nerd Herd,” Lena supplied. “That way we know no one can make a move on you at your job.”

Kara looked over at the large man who was running the brush through the barrel of his gun like he was caressing a lover. She sighed, “Great. What about you?”

Lena looked down at her hands, “Well...we think it’s most advantageous if I pose as your girlfriend. That will allow me to stay close to you, as well, without arousing suspicion.”

Kara snapped her head up. _Yep nothing suspicious about me dating a friggin’ supermodel,_ she thought. “Alright.” 

Lena smiled at her and placed a hand on hers. “Don’t worry. We won’t let anything happen to you.” She pulled her hand away.

Kara’s heart skipped a beat, and her skin tingled from the touch.

***

The next day, Kara had a hankering for a hotdog, so she headed over to the Weinerlicious for lunch. She pulled open the door, bell ringing, and saw a group of teenage boys ogling the woman behind the counter. The woman turned to hand them their order--it was Lena. The boys grabbed their food and ran out of the restaurant.

She walked up to the counter, looking puzzled. “Lena, what’s uh--what’s going on? What are you doing here?”

“I work here now, Kara.” Lena answered, pulling up a batch of burned corndogs out of the oil. “Shit. I burned another batch!”

“Why are you working here?” Kara asked, confused.

“Surveillance. I can monitor The Nerd Herd from here while you’re at work. It’s just a cover.”

“Right. All a part of the plan, I’m sure,” Kara started. She didn’t like everyone getting jobs and settling into a routine. That meant things weren’t moving with getting the Intersect out of her head. “Because there’s a plan, right? I mean, I’m guessing you making gourmet weiners isn’t exactly why you signed up for the CIA, right? And Hank isn’t exactly a natural-born computer salesman, and the whole kinda ‘government secrets locked in my brain’ thing, uh...I’m sure that’s probably not really a boon for national security, so I’m--I’m hoping that you’ll tell me there’s a plan?” She sucked in a breath, trying to stop herself from rambling more.

Lena leaned over the counter and smiled. “We have a plan. There is somebody who can help you.” She leaned back over the counter and began wiping it down. “We can discuss it further tonight. How about another date? I can pick you up at 8:00.”

Kara was taken aback by the casual way Lena had asked her out. It took her a second to shift gears. “Uh, yeah that sounds--that sounds great. I’ll see you at 8:00.” She turned around and walked out of the shop without even buying lunch, no longer hungry.

***

“Hey Alex, what do you think of this shirt?” She held up a blue and black checkered button up in front of her. 

“Another date with Lena? This is pretty exciting!” Alex said, grinning from where she sat on the bed next to Winn, who was playing X-Box.

“We’ll see,” Kara said nonchalantly. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yes it is!” Winn chimed in. “This girl is _hot_. I mean she is _smoking_.”

Alex snapped her head back to Kara, “Wait a minute, _Winn_ has met her and I haven’t?”

“What can I say, she confides in me, Alex.” Winn responded, not looking up from his game. “She tells me her deepest, darkest secrets. That’s why I get the title of best friend.”

Alex rolled her eyes and turned back to Kara. “I need to meet this girl. Tomorrow night, dinner, here.”

“Oof. Gonna introduce her to the Tron and Star Wars posters so soon? Not really a natural aphrodisiac,” Winn snickered. Alex shot him a look. He gulped, “Dinner sounds good, I’ll clear my schedule.”

***

Kara stood by the curb in her blue and black checkered shirt, black jeans and Chucks, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was nervous to be going out with Lena again, even though she knew it wasn’t real. She couldn’t help the butterflies that burst into flight in her stomach every time the agent looked at her.

Lena pulled up to the curb at 8:00 sharp, and Kara whistled at the Jaguar. “Wow, Weinerlicious really pays well, huh?” She climbed into the car. “So what are we doing? Where are we going? Like, a movie or some dinner or--”

“Not exactly,” Lena cut her off.

“What does ‘not exactly’ mean?” Kara asked. Lena didn’t answer. She stayed silent the entire trip.

They pulled into the Nerd Herd parking lot and Lena killed the engine. Kara looked out the window. “Oh, so we’re having our date at my job? Or is this a chance for me to clock in some overtime?”

Lena turned to her. “There’s a doctor coming to see you. He worked on the encoding process for the Intersect computer, the one that James destroyed when he sent you those secrets. He’s coming to examine you.”

Kara suddenly felt queasy. “Uh huh. And--and does this examination involve, like...needles or perhaps probing of some kind?”

“The doctor is our best shot at helping you,” Lena replied. She looked into Kara’s eyes and her voice softened. “It’s what you want, right? To get the Intersect out of your head?”

Kara stared back, swallowing. “Yeah…yeah of course.” She opened her car door and followed Lena toward the store. “B-but you’re still being very vague regarding the whole needles and probing part of this, and I’d really like to get an answer about that.”

Lena simply laughed and led her inside to the home theatre room, which was a small room closed off by glass walls and doors with curtains that ran the length of the room. Inside was a couch, coffee table, and home theatre setup. She sat Kara down on the couch and handed her a headset with a microphone attached. She closed the curtains and turned back to Kara. “When the images start appearing on the screen, just say what they are.”

Kara looked up at her, “That’s it?”

Hank appeared around the corner. “I’m sure you’ll find some way to screw it up.” He turned to Lena. “The doctor is here.”

Kara perked up, “When do I get to meet him?”

“You don’t,” Lena responded. “It’s important that he doesn’t see you. You’re too valuable.”

“Thanks, I’m flattered,” Kara joked. _And totally freaked out._

Lena smiled and turned out the lights as she left, leaving Kara sitting in the glow of the screensaver.

***

Lena and Hank walked out to the Nerd Herd desk, where a tall, thin man with a scar on his chin was setting up his equipment. “Doctor Zarnow.” 

The man turned. “Agent Henshaw, Agent Luthor. Good to meet you.” He shook their hands.

“Thank you for meeting us at a neutral site,” Lena said, cordially. “Shall we begin?”

“I don’t understand why I can’t see my patient,” Dr. Zarnow huffed.

“For your safety, we’re keeping Patient-X’s identity a secret.” Lena replied shortly.

“Well, does Patient-X work here?”

Hank and Lena exchanged looks. “Patient-X?” Hank scoffed. “The person who knows all the Intersect secrets, working at The Nerd Herd??”

Zarnow huffed out a laugh. “Yes, ridiculous.” He leaned into the microphone to speak to Kara. “After the tone the test will begin.” He engaged the test.

Kara looked up at the screen as the first image appeared. “Uh, dog.” Another image replaced it. “Hippo.” 

Another image. 

“Fat guy?”

Another image.

“Ugly building.”

An image of a flower popped onto the screen and Kara immediately flashed on it, and the information came flowing out like word vomit. “Cardinal One is the top Moscow spy in the White House office--”

The image changed. She flashed again, “The plot to assassinate President Jimmy Carter was orchestrated by--”

The images flipped by and the secrets spilled out one by one.

“Oceanic flight 816 shot down by Ukraine in an attempt to--”

“A subterranean capitol under Denver International Airport has reached Phase 4--”

“Benedictine agents within the Vatican confirm that the assassin is still--”

“The current theory on the Pakistani governments’ military movements is--”

She continued on in this manner for what seemed like hours, but was probably just a few minutes, until a final image popped onto the screen. “...Okay well that’s just a picture of a turtle.”

Zarnow closed his briefcase, looking stunned. “Your patient is phenomenal. We never imagined this, one person seeing all the Intersect images. All of our secrets in one mind!”

“Can you remove the secrets, doctor?” Hank asked.

“Yes, I think I can. But I’ll need time.”

***

Lena pulled up to the curb outside of Kara’s apartment. Kara looked over at her, “So, did I pass the test?”

Lena smiled, “You did great, Kara.”

Kara smiled and nodded. “And this doctor guy? He can fix me or--?”

“He’s hopeful, yeah,” Lena said dismissively.

Kara sighed. “Ok.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened her door. “Oh! I almost forgot, um, dinner tomorrow night with my sister and her girlfriend. She really wants to meet you, so…”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Lena smiled. “It’ll be good for our cover.”

“Yeah...uh,” Kara stuttered, “Meeting the family is--is kind of a big step, or it would be, if our relationship were remotely real.” She chuckled anxiously. Lena just stared at her impassively.

She cleared her throat. “So, if this whole examination thing...if it works out, then I guess we’re through, huh?”

Lena nodded. “Mmhmm, yep.”

Kara’s heart dropped. She wanted her old life back, but she hated the thought of Lena leaving. She climbed out of the car and wished Lena a good night. She turned to walk into the courtyard, but turned back suddenly. “Oh and uh, just so you know, tonight was probably the best -- only -- second date that I’ve been on in years.” She chuckled lightly. Lena just smiled politely.

“Okay...drive safe.” She waved to Lena and walked into her apartment, her shoulders sagging.

***

The next morning, Kara sat on her bed, lacing up her Chucks, and thinking about the night before. Pretty soon the Intersect would be out of her head. She felt a wave of relief wash over her at the thought. She wasn’t cut out for the spy life, and she didn’t like the idea of having a target on her back very much either. Her thoughts turned to Lena, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. Part of her felt validated by the fact that the agent had never actually been into her. She had known someone like Lena was too good to be true. But that didn’t stop the mountain of disappointment that sat in her chest at the thought of the woman leaving.

“Hey, did you see this?” Alex asked, entering the room and handing her a newspaper. 

Kara barely looked at the headline, **Bank Executive Dies in Robbery** , as her eye was drawn to the picture sitting below it: James Olsen. She sat looking at it pensively.

“Did you know James was dead?” Alex asked softly.

Kara swallowed and got ready to tell her first lie to her sister. “No, no I didn’t.” She stood up and walked over to her closet so Alex couldn’t see her face.

“Well, are you okay?”

She could answer this one honestly. She grabbed her tie and turned back to her sister, “I don’t know. I mean--I don’t know, it’s crazy. I’ve spent so much time hating him for getting me kicked out of NCU...I don’t really know how to feel.” She looked back at the newspaper lying on the bedspread. “But I guess it’s hard to be mad at him now.”

Alex gave her a sympathetic smile and stood up. “Well, I’m really sorry Kara.” She pulled her sister into a hug and then left the room.

***

Lena had been awoken in the wee hours of the morning by her phone ringing. She was being called to a crime scene out in the desert. 

When she arrived on the scene, she found agents sifting through a burned out car, clearly the result of a bomb explosion. She located Henshaw off in the distance on the phone. She headed over to him. “What have we got?”

He ended his call. “Zarnow. It’s his car. No sign of his body though, probably vaporised.” He gazed at the hollowed out shell. “I guess those secrets are staying in Kara’s head, since it appears we’ll be sending the good doctor home in an ashtray.”

Lena set her jaw. She didn’t like this. If someone killed Zarnow, then they knew he was working with the government. It seemed like only a matter of time before he was traced back to The Nerd Herd, and therefore Kara. She walked back over to the remains of the car and began sifting through the pieces of debris on the ground. She lifted a smoking hubcap and found a cellphone, the backside of it blown completely off. Her eyes widened. She looked up at Henshaw quickly and, finding his back to her, she grabbed the phone and shoved it in her pocket. She casually strode back over to Hank. “Well, doesn’t look like there’s anything here, so I’m going to head out. Got some hotdogs to make.”

Hank rolled his eyes, “And I’ve got some hard drives to fix.”

She gave him a wry smile and headed to her car. She sat in the driver’s seat and pulled a plastic evidence bag out of her kit in the backseat, dropping the blasted out phone into it. She set it on the passenger seat on top of a newspaper with James Olsen’s face staring up from the front page. She averted her eyes from the image and drove off.

***

“No, the Strat controller is fine, but the strum bar on the Gibson is starting to stick.” Kara sat behind the Nerd Herd desk with Winn, swiveling her chair back and forth. So far the day had been uneventful, she thought happily, but that gave her more time to worry about dinner with Alex and Lena tonight. She didn’t want to lie to Alex. 

Suddenly a strong hand wrapped around her bicep and turned her chair. Hank whispered menacingly in her ear, “No secret meetings with Lena today, you can’t trust her.”

Kara stared back at him, bewildered. “What? Why? Is there a problem?”

“No problems, only solutions,” he sneered.

Just then a chat box popped up on her work computer from Lena. She looked over Hank’s shoulder to read it: _Kara. I need to see you. Weinerlicious. ASAP._

She cleared her throat. “W-well that--that actually sounds like The Nerd Herd customer policy, which I’ve noticed that you’ve had some issues with. So...um...so what we are going to do is work on that!” She turned to Winn and frantically motioned for him to join the two of them. “We’re going to do some roleplaying! Yeah! And uh--we’ll work on your customer service skills!” She turned to Winn, “Winn here will be the customer, and you’ll be the salesman--uh you know--like you are,” she laughed anxiously, “and--and I’m just going to run to the little nerd’s room and take care of business and I’ll be back in a minute!” She rushed off to the back room to escape out the back door, sprinting toward the Weinerlicious.

She entered the restaurant to find the same group of boys ogling Lena again, a wave of annoyance rushing over her at the sight. Lena handed them their order and they ran out of the restaurant. She walked up to the counter and Lena fixed her with a tense look.

“So, Kara. NO private meetings with Hank today.”

Kara frowned, “What? Wait--what is up with you guys today?”

Lena narrowed her eyes. “Did he tell you the same thing?” Kara nodded. “Right, of course he did,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Hold on a second, is something wrong?”

Lena sighed, “The doctor from last night was killed in an explosion soon after he left us.”

“Wh-What?! The doctor who was supposed to _fix me_?!” Kara exclaimed, her face pale.

Lena ignored her, pulling the burned out cellphone from her bag, and placing it on the counter. “Tell me what this is.”

Kara picked it up, frowning. “I don’t know, it’s a nasty--” Just then her eyes crossed and the images began to flash in her mind. She gasped. “--NSA incinerator. Special issue. Designed to eliminate all biological traces.” She dropped it back on the counter like it had burned her. “That’s what killed the doctor!”

“And guess who works for the NSA,” Lena replied calmly.

Kara’s mouth hung open. “But--but why? Why would he--”

“He’s a killer, Kara!” Lena interrupted. “It’s what he does for a living. He tried to kill us that first night, and he’ll probably try to do it again. Maybe it was orders, maybe he just didn’t like the way Zarnow looked at him.”

Kara felt sick to her stomach and her hands were shaking. “Oh that’s just great Lena, tell me, what exactly am I supposed to _do_?!” She couldn’t keep the anxious rise out of her voice.

“You go back in there and you pretend like you know nothing!” Lena ordered, firmly. Then she softened her voice. “You can do that, Kara. Now, go on.”

Kara gulped and nodded, heading out the door and back to The Nerd Herd. “I know nothing,” she said to herself. “I know nothing, I know nothing, I know nothing…”

She walked back into the store and was immediately accosted by Henshaw, who grabbed her by her collar. “What did Lena tell you?” He asked ferociously. “I know you talked to her, it’s what I do for a living.”

She stared back at him blankly, willing herself not to say anything. He stared at her, his brown eyes boring holes into her blue ones, flickering back and forth, searching for a weakness. When she didn’t speak, he huffed and let go of her collar, walking away.

***

Lena heard the tinkling of the bell as the door of the Weinerlicious swung open. She turned to find Henshaw standing in the entrance.

“What did you tell Kara?” He asked, moving toward the counter.

“That you’re a cold-blooded killer. Was I lying?” She responded coolly.

“No. But the way I figure it, the only two people who knew the doctor was coming are right here.” 

Lena slid her fingers over to the stack of wooden skewers sitting next to her on the counter as he talked.

“And since I didn’t kill him, that leaves you,” he finished, pulling his gun out of his waistband. “You’re under arrest!”

Lena launched a skewer at him, impaling the hand holding the gun, causing him to yelp in pain. She jumped over the counter and threw a second skewer at his chest, but he grabbed a tray off the table next to him and shielded himself with it, the skewer burying itself in the plastic. He raised the gun to point it at her again, and she aimed a kick at it, knocking it out of his hand.

He threw a punch and then another, putting her on the defensive. She ducked a blow and landed one of her own against his cheek before catching one to the side of the head. She growled out a breath and fell over onto a table, grabbing another tray and slamming it into his face. He fell over onto the table behind him, but straightened quickly, wheeling around with a plastic fork in his hand. She nearly laughed, but then he was throwing punch after punch, trying to gouge her eye with the fork.

He threw a punch and she ducked it, sending an elbow to his kidney as she ducked behind his back. He hit the ground and groaned. She ran over to the mop standing in the corner and snapped the handle in half, leaving one end pointed and sharp. She whipped around and saw Henshaw on his feet diving toward the gun on the floor. She smacked his hand with the mop handle, driving him backwards. She whacked him across the face with the stick and he fell back toward the counter. She stepped towards him to attack again, but he grabbed a chair to deflect. As she struck again, the staff got caught in the slats of the frame of the chair, and he yanked it out of her hands, throwing her off balance. She caught herself and spun around landing a powerful roundhouse kick to his stomach, and pushing him over the countertop. 

She turned to head behind the counter to finish him, when she was distracted by the tinkling of the bell. She looked back and saw the same group of boys that she had just served entering the shop. One pulled out his phone, another whispered, “Hurry! Take the picture!” The boy with the phone snapped her picture, before running out of the shop with the rest of his group. She stood there for a moment, brow furrowed, her chest heaving with exertion, until she heard a clatter from the back room. She looked behind the counter: Henshaw was gone.

***

“Got a Code Zebra for ya, Kara,” Nia said, tossing a file in front of her. “Linux install up off of Ventura. 142 Euclid St.” She clapped her on the back and turned to leave.

“W-wait, I’m sorry,” Kara started, pulling herself out of her thoughts, “Why can’t you and Brainy go, exactly?”

Nia laughed incredulously, “Are you serious? Linux? Uh, Brainy and I--we’re Mac experts, okay? We’re, what you might call, I.T. artists.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Okay, yeah whatever. I’ll be back in like half an hour.” She headed out to the Nerd Herder and hopped on the expressway.

Ten minutes later, she pulled up to the address and parked the car, pulling the client file into her lap to familiarise herself with the details. She was jolted out of her thoughts by someone rear-ending her car. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw Henshaw’s SUV. Her cellphone rang. “Yes?”

“We need to talk.” Henshaw replied.

“Well, I can’t really talk right now, I’ve got an install to do. They’re expecting me at--”

“142 Euclid?” He cut in. “Guess who called that in?” he asked menacingly.

Kara put the pieces together and her heart began to race. “Oh my god...it was you! You killed the doctor, and now you’re here to kill me!” She hung up the phone and threw the car into drive, pulling away from the SUV. She sped around corners, weaving through traffic, trying to shake him off. She had just turned onto an empty street when Henshaw slammed his truck into the rear quarterpanel of the Nerd Herder, performing a pit maneouver, causing her to lose control. 

She gasped and hit the brakes, throwing the car in park and taking off her seatbelt. She climbed out of the car, “ _Are you crazy_?!” 

Henshaw climbed out of his vehicle and started walking toward her. Kara took note of his hand wrapped in a bandage, his face covered in cuts and welts. “Whoa, what happened to you?” She backed around the car, trying to keep distance between them.

“Your girlfriend happened.” He responded. “She’s rogue, Kara. She killed the doctor, then she tried to kill me.”

“Is she okay?” It slipped out. She didn’t mean to ask it, but if Henshaw looked this bad, she couldn’t imagine Lena fared better.

“Yeah, I’m golden, thanks for asking,” Hank replied, rolling his eyes.

“No wait! Wait a minute. Why should I believe you? She showed me the bomb, she said _you_ did it!”

“NSA incinerator, right? It’s a nice explosive. Easily purchased on the black market.” He stepped closer to Kara. “What do you really know about Lena, Kara? Think: she’s CIA, she worked with James, he was rogue, maybe she is too. She found you in National City, but she couldn’t grab you then because I was there, so she had to wait for her chance. Dr. Zarnow screwed that up. He could pull those secrets out of your head, and then she’d lose the Intersect. So she had to act fast--”

Kara’s phone rang, cutting off his sentence. She pulled it out and looked at the incoming caller ID: Lena. 

Hank grabbed the phone out of her hands and looked at the display before declining the call, powering the phone down, and handing it back to her. “Now, let’s go.” They climbed into his SUV and as Kara began to buckle her seatbelt, a phone began to ring.

“I thought I turned that off,” Hank growled. 

“Well, it’s not me!” Kara responded defensively. “That’s not my ringtone. Is it yours?”

“No,” Hank replied. They stared at each other for a moment, then looked in the backseat to find the source of the ringing. A phone just like the one used to blow up Dr. Zarnow’s car was sitting on the rear seat.

“NSA INCINERATOR! RUN!” Kara yelled, yanking off her seatbelt and throwing open her door. They ran to the Nerd Herder and crouched down behind it, panting. Silence fell for a moment, then another. Kara sighed with relief, maybe it was a defective--

_**B** _ _**OOM!** _

A large fireball consumed Henshaw’s SUV, the blast throwing them backwards onto their butts. Kara stared at the burning vehicle, mouth hanging open. It really was Lena. She was trying to kill them.

“Still think it was me?” Hank asked sardonically.

“Why would Lena do this?” She gasped for breath as the shock of the moment started to wear off.

“She’s cleaning the operation.” 

“Cleaning?” Kara asked, puzzled.

“Eliminating everyone she’s come into contact with. Do you know where she is?”

Kara’s thoughts swirled in her head. _Where? Where? Where?_ Realisation dawned on her and she felt her heart stutter to a stop. “We have to get back to my house! She’s at my house for dinner!”

“No way, kid. You’re on the next plane back to Washington,” he said dismissively, as he dialed a number on his phone.

“But my sister!” Kara exclaimed, panicked.

“--doesn’t have a supercomputer in her noggin. You’re the priority.” He put the phone to his ear and turned away from Kara. “Yeah it’s Henshaw, put me through to General Haley.”

Kara was not about to sit here and let Lena kill Alex and Kelly. She took a few tentative steps backwards, trying not to make any noise. Then she turned and bolted to the Nerd Herder, throwing it into drive and headed to her apartment, leaving Henshaw in the middle of the street.

***

Kara raced through the courtyard, her tie flapping with every step. She burst through the door to find Alex, Kelly, Winn, and Lena all sitting around the table, having a glass of wine. They all looked up as she entered. Lena stood. “Kara! Where have you been?”

Kara walked into the dining room slowly. “Why? You surprised to see me?” She stepped closer to her and widened her eyes significantly.

“What?” Lena asked, brow furrowed. Then recognition dawned on her face. “Where’s Henshaw?” she asked, quietly.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s having some...car trouble,” Kara snarked, stepping around Lena to greet her family. “Everyone okay?”

“Yeah, just a little hungry, dude. You’re late.” Winn responded.

“And a bit dirty for my taste,” Kelly added from beside Alex. Kara looked down at her white button up to see it was covered in soot from the explosion.

“And your girlfriend has just been nothing but mean to me,” Alex said with a grin.

“Oh, ha!” Kara faked a laugh, “Yep. Look out for her!” She looked back at Lena, who was staring at her with an eyebrow arched. She turned back to her family. “So! Everyone’s been getting along?”

Lena stepped forward, “Oh yeah, Kara, your sister is awesome.”

“Indeed,” Kelly said, pulling Alex into a kiss.

Kara wasn’t paying attention. She was trying to figure out a way out of this mess, where they all came out of this alive. “Hey! I’ve got an idea! Why don’t we actually go out to eat! Like, for pizza or something? Some place...public...with--with lots and lots of people around!”

Alex looked at her like she had three heads. “Uhhh Kara, I’ve been cooking all day…”

“Yeah, and she made pot roast, which is my favourite so…” Winn added.

“Let’s eat!” Kelly said, walking to the head of the table to carve the roast.

Kara’s shoulders dropped in defeat as she looked over at Lena, who was staring at her with something akin to disappointment in her eyes. 

They sat down with the rest of the group and Kelly began carving the roast. “So, Lena, let’s turn this up a notch, personal-style. Where are you from? I can’t place your accent.”

Lena smiled, “Well I was born in Ireland, but I’ve lived in America for most of my life. I moved here from D.C.”

Alex looked up at that. “Oh, Kara had a friend who lived in D.C.”

“Well, former friend,” Winn chimed in. “Former because A) he was a jerk, and B)...well, because he’s dead.” He turned to Lena. “The girl Kara was dating before you? He stole her.”

“Ugh, I just don’t know how anyone could choose James over Kara,” Alex said, dishing out vegetables onto her and Kelly’s plates.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Alex opened the door to find Hank standing on the stoop, a plate of mini quiches in his hands. “Hi! I’m Hank Henshaw, I just moved in upstairs. I thought I might bring something over.”

Alex took in his Nerd Herd uniform and smiled. “Well, come on in!” She turned to Kara, “Kara, you didn’t tell me you were bringing a friend.”

Kara stood up from the table and quickly moved over to Henshaw. “Yeah! Uh..sorry, it just totally slipped my mind that my...uh… _friend_ Hank was coming over. We work at Nerd Herd together, Winn you know Hank, obviously. I was telling him we were gonna have a get together and then, you know--the more the merrier!” 

As she finished her ramble, Hank whispered into her ear, “Pull a stunt like that again, and I’ll kill you before she can.”

Kara forced out a loud fake laugh, “Oh you kidder!”

Alex informed her they would need another chair and Kara headed to her bedroom to grab one. She turned around, chair in hand, to find Henshaw standing in the doorway. He closed the door. “NSA ran a check on Lena Luthor to see what we had. Two years ago, she posed as a French diplomat, and infiltrated the inner circle of an arms deal. Killed the entire circle.”

She gaped at him. “W-With a bomb?”

“We don’t know. But her alias was Helena Benoit.”

Kara’s eyes rolled as she flashed on the name. A French diplomatic passport, a table full of men, a gravy boat, the same men all dead, their heads lolling to the side. She gasped. “They were poisoned...at dinner!”

There was a knock at the door, and Alex came in. “Oh good, you found a chair,” she said with a smile. Henshaw took the chair from Kara and headed to the living room. Alex turned to Kara, “Wow, Kara. Wow. I mean, I knew that you had it in you, but she is---wow, she is really great!”

Kara stood stockstill, her mind spinning over the implications of what she and Hank had just discovered. “Yeah,” she gasped out, “she’s….unpredictable!”

Alex put her hands on her shoulders. “Hey, listen to me. You have no reason to be nervous, okay? Now, you have a great girl out there. I mean, she even made dessert!”

Kara snapped her head up at that. “What? She made dessert?” _Dessert. Poison. The poison is in the dessert_.

“Yeah!” Alex smiled and walked back out to the dining room.

Kara stood for a moment, processing, then she ran out into the dining room, just as Kelly was reaching for a bite of Lena’s chocolate souffle. 

She slid to a halt. “Stop!!” 

Everyone looked up at her. She stood for a moment, chest heaving, brain going a mile a minute. “We...we didn’t do a toast!” She took a breath and walked slowly to the table. “Which--which I’ll do, right now.” She grabbed her glass of wine and raised it. “Yeah...ok um...I--I propose a toast...to my sister! And--and to a meal that looks so great! And--and Kelly, you’re great!” She was grasping at straws, trying to stall. She turned to Lena. “And Lena! For a great _dessert_.” She looked at her pointedly. Lena furrowed her brow, studying her.

Kara turned to Hank. “And to Hank Henshaw and--and his mini quiches, which are equally as great!”

“Mmhmm!” Winn murmured his agreement through mouthfuls of aforementioned mini quiches. He swallowed, “Hey what about me, Kara?”

“For what?” Alex asked, disgusted.

“And to Winn! For his great comedic timing!” Kara exclaimed.

Having made it through everyone at the table, they all raised their glasses and gave a ‘Cheers!’ to each other, and everyone took a drink, Kara, Lena, and Hank all sharing pointed looks with each other.

“Well, you know that souffle does look amazing!” Alex said.

“Yeah it does,” Kelly agreed. “I think I’m gonna just dip in here and--”

“WAIT!” Kara shouted, throwing a hand out. She looked around the room, searching for another distraction, something, anything that would prevent them from eating the poisoned dessert. She glanced down at the dessert, and the tablecloth caught her eye. She drew in a sharp breath as the idea hit her. Alex would kill her, but at least she’d live long enough to be able to do it. “Who likes magic?” She asked, the anxiety clear in her voice.

“I do!!” Winn exclaimed.

“I know a trick!” She said, gripping the tablecloth.

Alex gasped, “KARA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Kara ignored her and yanked on the tablecloth, “VOILA!”

She expected the food to go crashing to the floor, but somehow she had actually managed to pull the tablecloth out from under all the dishes without disturbing them. She stared down at the table in disbelief at the undisturbed meal, a candle on the table rocking back and forth precariously the only proof that she’d even done anything. “How the hell…?” She whispered to herself.

The candle continued to rock and then Hank bumped the table with his knee, causing it to fall over onto Lena’s souffle, setting it on fire. “Flambé!”

Kara gasped and grabbed the flaming dish, running to the bathroom and turning on the shower. She slid the dish into the oncoming stream of water, as everyone ran in behind her, Alex first, and Hank bringing up the rear.

“Kara! Look, no matter how stressed out you are, it is never okay to murder a woman’s souffle!” Alex looked at her in exasperation. 

Lena pushed her way past Winn into the bathroom. She stared at Kara for a moment, then she turned to Alex. “You know what, let me talk to her.”

Alex smiled and led everyone out of the bathroom. Kara shot one last pleading look at Hank before Lena shut the door and turned back to her, steel in her eye. She grabbed Kara and shoved her against the door. “Tell me exactly what Hank said!”

Kara stammered and stuttered, trying to think of what to say. Lena twisted her arm behind her back. “What did he tell you?”

She winced at the pain. “That you killed Dr. Zarnow and poisoned a bunch of French diplomats!”

Lena looked at her in disbelief. “They’re blaming me for Zarnow?”

She ignored her. “If you’re planning on hurting me, even to prove a point, I think you should know that I have a very low threshold for pain!”

Lena twisted her arm tighter behind her back. “And you believe Henshaw?”

Kara felt her legs giving out from the pain in her arm. “Tell me about the French diplomats,” she gasped out, as she sank to her knees.

“They were French _assassins_ and they were after me, but I got to them first, and you know what? I’m kinda glad I did! Kara, do you really think my name is Lena? I never asked you to believe me, I asked you to _trust_ me.” She sighed as she let go of Kara’s arms and began pacing around the bathroom. “This doesn’t make sense. If Henshaw didn’t kill Zarnow then…” she trailed off.

Kara looked up at her, “Then what?”

“I have to go, right now.” She left the bathroom and stopped at the dining room. “Uh, I’m sorry, I have to go, but dinner was wonderful!” She grabbed her keys and raced out the door.

Kara came around the corner and turned to everyone at the table, “Gotta go, be back later.”

Hank stood up and excused himself, as well. He followed Kara out the door.

Kara ran to catch up with Lena, who was pulling on her coat. “Lena, wait!”

Lena turned back to her. “You, stay inside! Do what I say!” She turned and headed to her car. Kara walked to the entrance to the courtyard as Hank joined her. She turned to him, “Do you think we were wrong?”

They heard Lena cry out, and ran down the steps and out to the street just in time to see a man loading Lena into the trunk of his car. Hank cocked his gun, “Don’t move!” 

The man closed the trunk lid that was obscuring his face: Zarnow. He pulled out a gun and shot Hank in the arm. “Good to see you again, Agent Henshaw.” He climbed into his car and sped off.

Kara looked down at Hank’s arm, where a tranquilizer dart was sticking out. “Oh my God.”

“Yep. We were wrong,” Hank said, falling over onto her. She caught him around the middle. “Hank, he’s got Lena, we’ve got to save her!”

“Oh brilliant deduction, Nancy Drew. Now pull out the tranq dart!” he growled.

She winced. “Oh um, I have a very strong aversion to needles--”

“Do it!!”

“Ok!” She gingerly grabbed the dart and yanked it out, without warning, before throwing it on the ground. Hank sank down the wall of the courtyard. 

“So that was the doctor, right? Which means he’s probably not dead, right?”

Hank rolled his eyes. “God, nothing gets by you, does it? Now help me up!”

Kara grabbed him around the middle and pulled him to his feet. “What’s he gonna do with Lena?”

“He’s gonna torture her until she tells him all about you.” He hobbled over to the Nerd Herder. “Come on!”

Kara hopped into the driver’s seat and gunned the engine, speeding off in the direction the doctor had gone. Hank began trying to track Lena’s phone. “I’m not getting a read on her. I’ve got nothing.”

“What do you mean you’ve got nothing? Then what do we do?”

“It’s over, she’s gone.”

“No no no no, okay, this is our fault,” she argued. “We didn’t believe her, and now we have to save her.” Hank said nothing. “Look, if you were a bad guy, what would you do? Fly her out on a plane? Would you use a boat or a--a--a--a what??”

Hank thought for a moment. “A chopper. Small airfield near the water. The closest I could find.”

“Then do a satellite search, and then maybe limit that to airfields that are within a certain range of us? And then maybe limit that by if there’s activity on the ground?” she suggested uncertainly.

Hank looked over at her, impressed. “That’s not bad.” He entered the search criteria into his locator device that he’d been trying to track Lena’s phone with. “Found it. Port of National City. Floor it!”

Kara mashed down on the gas pedal and weaved through the traffic. Within minutes she found herself flying through the entrance to the port. She drove around the area until they found the helicopter, then she put the car in park and cut the engine.

“This is how this is gonna work,” Hank started. “I’m gonna go over there, rescue Lena, capture Dr. Zarnow, and shoot anyone that gets in my way. And you? You’re gonna stay here.”

“So...in this plan, I basically do nothing?”

“Yep.”

She nodded, “Okay, let’s do this.”

Hank got out of the car and headed toward one of the buildings, gun drawn. Kara watched him until he left her line of vision, then she sighed. _And now we wait._

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and looked to see what it was. Zarnow had just come out of one of the buildings. Her heart started pounding. “Stay in the car. Stay in the car. Do not leave the car. Do _not_ leave this car.” She chanted it to herself for another few seconds, then removed her seatbelt and left the car, heading for the building Zarnow had just exited.

She pushed open the door carefully and peered into the building. She saw Lena standing in the middle of the room, arms chained over her head, her dark hair plastered to her face with sweat, tape over her mouth. She rushed over to the agent, whose eyes widened when she saw her. She started trying to shout at Kara, but her words were muffled by the tape.

Kara peeled the tape off of her mouth gingerly. “Are you okay?!”

“Kara, you have to get out of here!”

“No! I’m here to save you!”

“You shouldn’t even be here, you’re too valuable! And besides, I have this well in hand!”

Kara glanced up at her hands chained above her head. “Yeah totally. It totally looks well in hand.”

Lena rolled her eyes, “Just find me something to pick this lock.”

She searched around until she found a paper clip on the desk behind her. She handed it up to the agent, who began to work on the handcuffs. A door slammed close by. Lena directed her to hide. She put the tape back over Lena’s mouth and ran to hide behind a pillar nearby, close enough so she could see what was happening, but still out of sight.

Zarnow came around the corner. “The helicopter is ready, Agent Luthor. This is your last chance. We’re going to a special facility where they’re going to torture you, really torture you, not this child’s play. Or you can just tell me: who is Patient-X?”

Lena stood silently, not even looking at the man, just staring straight ahead. He raised a pneumatic syringe gun bearing a long needle and brought it to her throat. "Something for the flight."

Kara saw the needle and let out an involuntary “Oh crap.” Zarnow turned around to find the source of the noise and spotted her. She made a break for the door, narrowly avoiding the syringe gun the doctor threw at her, as the needle buried itself into the wall behind her. She glanced back at him and froze, her brain flashing on his face. She gasped, “I know you! I know your secrets! You--you’ve been feeding American science to North Korea for years!”

Zarnow reached into his briefcase and pulled out his tranquilizer gun. “Ah! Patient-X! To think that my secrets are in that head of yours. It’s an honor, really.” He laughed dryly. “Of course, to hell with honor. I’m here for the impressive dollar figure the human Intersect will fetch. Who will I offer you to first?” He raised the tranq gun and pulled the trigger. 

Kara grasped at her chest where the dart had landed and, seeing the needle sticking out, promptly dropped to the floor.

***

Kara came to and looked around. She was in a helicopter that was only just taking off. She looked down at her chest, confused. She’d been shot with a tranq dart, she shouldn’t be awake yet. Upon examination, she found that the dart hadn’t pierced her skin, just her pocket protector. She'd merely passed out from seeing the needle.

“Proceed to Bravo coordinates, the ship will be waiting there,” came Zarnow’s voice from the co-pilot’s chair.

Kara looked around and saw that she, Zarnow, and the pilot were the only ones in the chopper. She glanced down and saw Zarnow’s tranq gun resting on the console. Moving as stealthily as she could, she grabbed the tranq gun, pointing it at Zarnow, “Don’t move!”

The doctor turned to look at her in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I want you to land the helicopter right now!” she demanded.

He ignored her request. “It’s heavier than you thought.”

“What?”

“The gun. It’s heavy.” He leaned over the seat and tried to wrestle the gun away from her. She yanked on it with all her strength and accidentally pulled the trigger, shooting the pilot. He slumped forward and the chopper began to pitch, alarms sounding all around them.

“You shot the pilot, you idiot!” Zarnow growled, climbing over the seat to get to Kara. 

They wrestled in the confined space as the chopper spun and pitched out of control. The doctor shoved her down to the ground just as the chopper scraped against a crane. The impact threw the man off of her and Kara took the opportunity to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart. She climbed into the cockpit and shoved the pilot out of the seat, grabbing ahold of the joystick in front of her. She began to breathe heavily, her feet finding the pedals as the chopper pitched and rocked. 

She was going to have to land this thing herself, or die trying.

***

Lena watched Zarnow drag Kara’s body out of the building, then she got to work on picking the lock on her chains with single-minded focus. She had just got them unlatched when Hank burst into the room. “Zarnow has Kara!” she shouted, rushing past him out the door. They ran out to the platform to see a helicopter lifting off. Hank raised his gun to shoot it but Lena lowered it with her hand. “No! Kara’s on that chopper!” 

They watched as the chopper continued to lift into the air, her mind running through their options. Suddenly the helicopter began to rock back and forth, spinning dangerously. At one point, the chopper scraped against a crane and Lena caught a glimpse of white climbing into the pilot’s chair.

“Oh my God...I think Kara is flying the chopper,” she said in a small voice. 

Hank’s eyes widened and he pulled out his phone, calling Kara's cell. “I thought I told you to stay in the car!”

“You know what, forget about the car, tell me how to fly a helicopter!” she shouted back.

“Alright, there’s a collective on the cyclic control--”

“What?!”

“One’s the stick, one looks like an emergency brake, grab them both!”

Kara found the two controls in question and gripped them tightly, her knuckles going white. “Okay. Okay I’ve got ‘em. Now what?”

“Now push the stick just a bit forward while doing the same thing with the emergency brake.”

Kara did as he directed and found the ground fast approaching. “Uhhh!!! Ground, not good!! This isn’t working!”

“Pull up!!” Hank shouted. “Pull up on the emergency brake! Level off. Level off!!

Kara kept pulling on both controls, but the chopper just kept rocking and spinning towards the ground. “I don’t know how! I don’t know how to level off!”

“Listen moron, do you wanna die?!” he shouted at her.

Kara narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, “Hank. Put. Lena. On. The phone.”

“Give me the phone, Hank!” Lena ordered, at the same time. He handed it off to her.

Lena spoke to her calmly, “Hey Kara, you’re gonna be okay, alright? But I need you to focus. Have you ever played any flying games before?”

“F-Flight simulators? Yeah, sure I’ve done those, yeah!” Kara answered anxiously, controls still locked in a death grip.

“Okay that’s great,” Lena said sweetly, “which ones?”

Kara began to list off the flight simulation games she had played. She got through three before Lena stopped her.

“Okay, now remember that last one. I want you to pretend like you’re playing that game, okay? You’re just in your bedroom. You’re playing a game and none of this is real.”

Kara took a deep breath. “It’s just a game. None of this is real. It’s just a game.” She loosened her grip on the controls. “Okay, I can do this. I can play this game.” She leaned the controls forward a smidge, pitching the chopper towards the ground a bit.

“Easy, Kara! Now just ease to the right a bit, and goose the brake at the same time. They designed the game exactly like the helicopter. You can do this!”

Kara eased the joystick to the right a bit and pulled up on the brake. “I got it, I got it. Almost there.” She eased toward the ground, the chopper rocking back and forth as she pulled on the brake. “Easing right. Goosing the brake. It’s just a game...a big scary video game!” The ground was getting closer and closer as she pulled on the brake until she finally came to a hard landing. She began to hyperventilate and laugh in relief at the same time. 

Lena and Hank rushed over to the helicopter, the wind from the blades whipping Lena’s hair around her face. Hank climbed in and shut down the chopper, while Lena pulled Kara out.

Kara jumped down from the cockpit and jumped up and down, adrenaline still pumping through her. “And that is how I do that!!” She looked over at Lena who was glaring at her. “Okay, that’s how _we_ do that. It was a team effort!” She raised her hand for a high five.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Lena shouted. “Kara, the secrets that you know are incredibly important! You compromised everything when you stopped trusting me!”

“And when you got out of the car,” Hank added, joining them.

Kara looked at them sheepishly. “Listen, I’m--I’m sorry, okay?”

“No! It is not okay!” Lena retorted. She looked at Kara, and Kara could have sworn she saw pain in her eyes. “How could you think I was the double? I am not James, okay? James betrayed everything I believe in, and if you ever accuse me of that again, then I will walk away. Mission over, we all go back to Washington. And you do _not_ want that to happen, Kara. _That_ you should trust me on.” She turned around and walked away, leaving Kara staring after her.

***

Two days later, Kara was leaning against a tree in a cemetery, watching James’ funeral take place. She hadn’t been sure she wanted to come, but they’d had so much history together that it didn’t feel right not showing up. She watched as James’ friends and family gathered around his grave and dropped roses onto the closed casket.

A figure to the left caught her eye and she looked over to find Lena standing off in the distance, dressed in a modest black dress. She caught her eye and raised a hand in a tentative wave, but stopped when she saw the tears streaming down the woman’s face, her eyes red and puffy. Lena averted her gaze and walked away without looking at Kara again, leaving the blonde to watch her go.

***

The bell tinkled as she entered the Weinerlicious to find Lena wiping down tables.

“Knock, knock,” she said, tentatively.

“Hey Kara.” 

“How--how is everything? I saw you at the funeral yesterday.”

Lena straightened up, her face a mask of indifference. “Oh yeah, I had to go. After everything James did, he was still my partner.” She walked behind the counter, turning her back to Kara.

“Look,” Kara began, “I’m not accusing you of anything...today. The other day? Yeah...maybe I laid it on a little thick with the accusing.” 

Lena arched an eyebrow as if to say ‘ _ya think_?’

“But I’m really sorry about that. Instead of accusing you, I should have been thanking you for saving my life, and protecting the country, and--and making really tasty gourmet weiners,” she said, looking down at the burned batch of corndogs in the hot case.

Lena closed her eyes and huffed out a laugh. When she opened them, she looked directly into Kara’s eyes, her expression soft. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“It was our first fight, you know?” Kara answered lightly. “It’s--It’s a big step, if our relationship were remotely real.”

Lena drew in a breath. “You know, with Dr. Zarnow gone, those Intersect secrets aren’t going anywhere. That means more missions, more danger, more secrets that you can’t tell your sister, or your friends.”

Kara cast her eyes down. “I know all of that.” She fidgeted with her glasses before looking back up at Lena, who was sizing her up curiously.

“Some people want to be heroes, and others have to be asked." She fixed her gaze on the blonde. "So...Kara...are you ready?”

Kara sighed, “Yeah.”

“Good.” She smiled at her. “Now how about trying one of these gourmet weiners?” She picked up two blackened corndogs and handed one to Kara, tapping it with her own gently. “Cheers.”

Kara dipped hers into ketchup and took a big bite, the crispy breading crumbling and smearing ketchup over her mouth. She licked her lips, trying to get it all.

“Here, let me help.” Lena reached up and swiped away a bit of the condiment from her lips with her thumb. 

Kara went pink around the ears. _God I am in so much trouble._

***

“Henshaw,” the man answered. 

A woman’s voice came over the line, “She flew a helicopter?! Your report was rather terrifying, Major Henshaw. Do we really have this situation in hand, or should Ms. Danvers be in our care full-time?”

“Well you know how I feel General Haley, but for now? We’re in control.”

“Then Kara stays where she is. But don’t get too comfortable, Major. The new Intersect will be up and running in six months.”

Hank paused. “And what happens to her once this is done?”

Haley was silent for a moment. “Well...you’ll do what you do best.”

Hank hung up the phone and began to clean his pistol. 

***


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara prepares for her first official mission: finding the world's most notorious arms dealer, Roulette. Everything should be fine, assuming she knows how to tango...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, hope it ain't shit 😬
> 
> Thanks for all your lovely comments. Yall don't understand how your kind words give me the will to keep writing, even when things are bad. 💖💖

Kara raised her hands, her blue eyes fixed on the barrel of the gun pointed at her face. “Please,” she pleaded, “please don’t shoot. Just put the gun down.”

The boy in front of her lowered the plastic gun that controlled his shooting game, “That’s the problem! I  _ can't _ shoot. This stupid thing is busted.”

She pulled her posi-driver out of her pocket and took the pistol controller out of his hands. “Well when it comes to Kara Danvers, my friend, there's no such thing as ‘busted'!” She laid the controller on the counter and went to work, tweaking the trigger mechanism. “There we go,” she said, spinning the pistol around her finger before handing it back to the boy. “Locked and loaded. Now, give it a shot.”

The kid shot at the screen, the controller working perfectly. Kara smiled, and headed to the back room. She had done inventory the night before and found piles of customer repair orders that had yet to be completed and she had been instructed to repair them. She gathered her fellow Nerds and led them to the storage cage in the back room, where the repairs all sat. She unlocked the cage, placing a busted tower in front of the door. The lock on the cage door was busted, and if the door to the cage shut while you were inside, you were locked in. It was a massive fire hazard, one that management had been slow to fix.

“I’ve got some bad news guys, the boss has given us two days to fix all this junk, or we’re all getting written up.” She turned to her team, “Sorry guys...and Nia.”

“Guys is fine,” Nia replied.

“No it’s not, we need to come up with something gender neutral...how about team?”

“Fellow Nerd-Herders?” Nia suggested.

“The Brainiacs?” Brainy supplied.

“Kara’s Stable of Hoes?” Winn snickered, walking up to the group. He winced at the sight of all the old computers. “Ugh...old computers give me the willies.” He turned to Kara. “By the way, your girl is here, and if I may say so: Looking  _ good _ .”

She brightened at the thought of Lena and made her way out to the front of the shop after instructing her team to get started on repairs. She spotted Lena near the entrance, the raven-haired woman looking around for her. When she caught Kara’s eye, she waved, a sweet smile plastered onto her face.

Kara waved back and walked quickly over to her. “Hey!” she greeted warmly.

“Hey,” Lena responded, smiling up at her. “Give me a kiss.”

Kara did a double take. “I--I’m sorry, what?”

“We’ve been on several dates now, we have to sell it,” Lena replied, stepping closer to her.

Kara glanced around the store briefly, before placing a chaste kiss on the woman’s cheek.

Lena looked up at her in disbelief, “That’s it?”

“I’m not really good with PDA,” she blushed.

“Hmm,” the agent murmured, grabbing the blonde’s hand. Her voice dropped to a low husk. “Well, let’s go somewhere more  _ private _ then, shall we?” She pulled Kara through the store to the home theatre room, where Hank was waiting for them, nose buried in that day’s paper. Kara tried to contain her disappointment at his presence.

“Okay, what’s going on? And can we make this quick? I’ve got hard drives to fix,” she asked anxiously, as Lena began laying out four pictures on the table, all containing people lying on the ground, pools of blood around their bodies. She picked one up, “Why are these people sleeping?” she asked nervously.

“They’re not sleeping, they were killed, and we want to know why,” Lena responded.

“I have no idea!”

“Well, look again,” Hank ordered, folding the paper under his arm.

A picture of a painting on the front page caught Kara’s eye and her eyes rolled back as she flashed. She gasped.

“What did you see?” Lena asked, quickly.

“I--I don’t--I’m not sure. A water lily painting, weapons, an art auction tomorrow night,” she paused to take a breath, “Does the name ‘Roulette' mean anything to you?”

Hank and Lena exchanged a tense look. “Why?” Hank asked.

“Because I think he’s going to be at the art auction tomorrow night.” She gulped, thanking whatever cosmic being that she wouldn’t be needed for this. Field work was not in her wheelhouse. “Right then, I’m gonna go fix those hard drives. Good luck with the spy stuff!” She left without waiting for a reply.

***

Lena and Hank gathered around the computer screen in Hank’s apartment. They were video conferencing with their superiors, NSA Director General Haley, and CIA Director Olivia Marsdin.

“If Kara is right,” Haley was saying, “then this mission is top priority. Roulette is the most elusive and dangerous arms dealer in the world.”

“The last anyone heard,” Marsdin chimed in, “MI-6 had the drop on him in London, but he vanished.”

“Well, if he turns up, we’ll just take him down at the auction.” Lena said confidently.

“It’s a bit more tricky than that,” Marsdin replied. “We have no idea what he looks like, no photographs. No one who has ever seen him alive has lived to tell about it.”

“So we’ll bring the Intersect,” Hank chimed in. “Everything we know about Roulette was fed into that computer--”

“No way,” Lena interjected, “it is too dangerous. She has no field experience, and no training.”

“She’ll be fine, it’s an  _ art auction _ ,” Henshaw retorted, “besides, Roulette probably won’t even be there.”

“And if he is? Is it worth the risk?”

“Alright, I’ve heard enough,” General Haley cut in. “Put her in the field. We don’t know what she’s capable of until she’s been tested.”

Lena crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the ground, her jaw working. She didn’t like this at all. It was foolish to put Kara in the field. The girl was not equipped to handle a fake date, let alone a high stakes art auction with the world’s most dangerous arms dealer potentially in the mix. If anything happened to the blonde…

She didn’t allow herself to finish that thought. Orders were orders. She’d just have to do her job and keep the woman safe.

***

Kara set aside the repaired hard drive she was working on as Hank entered the storage cage. He glanced around to check that they were alone. Satisfied, he sat down across from her. “Got your first mission tonight. Hope you’re ready.”

Kara looked at him anxiously. “The art auction?” He nodded. “Okay….okay so--so the dress code for this, is this like a sneakers thing? Or would you classify this as more of a shoe event?” 

“Relax, we rented you a tux.”

“Oh! That’s very nice of you, I appreciate you not forcing me to wear a dress...wait...how did you know my size?”

Hank looked at her seriously. “NSA, remember? We have records of your rental information from prom.”

She stared back at him in horror.

He snickered, “I checked the suit in your closet, numbnuts.”

She flushed and felt her frustration rising in her chest. “Okay, you know what? This is my first foray into major undercover spy work, so if you could ease up on the sarcasm, that would be great!” She took a breath, trying to calm down. “And how am I supposed to recognize Roulette? Is there a picture or something?”

“If there was a picture, we wouldn’t need  _ you _ ,” he snarked back at her.

“What did we  _ just _ talk about?”

“Sorry,” he said apologetically. “We’re hoping something at the event triggers a flash.”

“See, that’s all you had to say! Now: hand to hand combat. In all seriousness, if it comes down to me and Roulette in some fisticuffs or something, is there like a 20 minute tutorial you could take me through?”

Hank rolled his eyes, “Don’t worry, you’re gonna be fine. Nothing’s going to happen to you.” He stood up from the desk. “...Assuming you know how to tango, of course.”

Kara stared at him. “...Seriously?”

He stared back, stony-faced. “Oh I don’t joke about your life.” He turned and walked out of the cage, just as Winn was walking in. She tried to arrange her face into something resembling non-panic.

“Heyyyy, your girlfriend is hereee!” Winn sang, taking the seat Hank had just vacated. 

She sighed, “I have all these computers to fix, I can’t really--”

“Don’t worry, we got it,” Nia said, as she and Brainy walked into the storage cage just then.

“Seriously?” She looked at the pair in disbelief. 

“Yep,” Nia responded, “but the next time Brainy and I have a date, you owe us, got it?”

Kara’s shoulders sagged in relief, “You got it. Thanks, team!” She walked out of the back room, Winn trailing beside her. 

“So where are you guys going tonight?” Winn asked, excitedly.

“Oh we’re actually going to this art auction at the Wilshire Grand.”

“Ooooh, swanky, well, have fun!” 

Kara gave him a thumbs up and met Lena at the door. She took Kara’s arm and they walked over to the Wienerlicious, sitting down at one of the outside tables.

“Ok so,” Lena began, “we need to establish a cover identity for you. The idea with a cover is to keep it as simple as possible, without revealing true, personal details. Any thoughts on a name?”

“...Kara Dawson?” she asked nonchalantly. “Simple, dignified.”

“And easy to remember, not far off from your actual--”

“Graduated with honors from NCU,” she continued, a faraway look in her eye. “Runs a hugely successful software company. Semi-retired and is considering entering America’s Cup.”

Lena smiled, “Have you done this before?”

She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “Let’s just say Ms. Dawson and I share a small kinship.”

Lena gave her a puzzled look.

Kara reached up to fidget with her glasses and sighed. “When I first entered college, that’s kind of where I envisioned myself being by now. Except for the sailing part, I don’t really know where that came from.” She shifted uncomfortably. “But she’s where most of my class already is.”

Lena crossed her arms and leaned forward curiously, “So, what happened?”

Kara sighed. “My life took an unexpected turn in senior year, when our good friend James Olsen discovered stolen tests under my bed and was kind enough to alert the university administration.”

Lena cocked her head, raising an eyebrow. “Did you steal the tests?”

“I thought it was kind of implied that I’m a decent person.”

“Sure...but we all make mistakes,” she said, giving her a searching look.

Kara looked her directly in the eyes. “And I’ve made plenty, but that wasn’t one of them,” she said forcefully. “But hey! Then James sent me a whole host of government secrets that are now locked in my brain, keeping me in a constant state of fear, danger, and anxiety, so I’d say we’re even!” she joked, wryly.

Lena reached over the table and took her hand. Kara became acutely aware of just how sweaty her palm was. “Don’t worry about tonight, you have no reason to be nervous.” She squeezed her hand. “I’m not going to leave your side.”

Kara chuckled nervously, “Me? Nervous? Nah.”

“Your hand is kind of moist.”

“It does that when I’m freaking out.”

Lena smiled at her and gave a small laugh. “It’s gonna be fine, Kara. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

***

Kara entered the apartment and saw Alex on the couch. “Hey sis...do you know how to tango?”

Alex furrowed her brow. “No, why?”

“No reason. I just have a date tonight and it might come up so…”

Alex turned to stare at her incredulously, “You’re tangoing on a date? Well, that’s...definitely new territory. Good to see you reaching outside of your comfort zone.”

“Well, considering my comfort zone extends to the end of that couch, new territory was bound to come up,” she joked.

“Did I hear someone say ‘tango?’” Kelly appeared around the corner, towel drying her hair. “I did a semester abroad in Buenos Aires. Spent many a night tangoing my way into senoritas’ pantalones.” 

Alex cocked an eyebrow at her. Kelly cleared her throat, “Uh, so I can teach you if you want.”

Kara let out a breath. “Alrighty, let’s do this.” 

***

Kara fidgeted with the cufflinks on her shirt as she waited by the curb. The tux Henshaw had provided fit like a glove, and she’d left her blonde hair down in loose waves. Her eye twitched and she resisted the urge to rub it. She’d foregone her glasses in favour of contacts, and she was still getting used to the sensation.

A long black limousine pulled up to the curb and the rear door opened to reveal Lena climbing out of the car. Kara’s breath hitched. She was  _ stunning _ . An off the shoulder black velvet dress hugged every curve, dipping low on her chest to reveal, frankly, a  _ criminal _ amount of cleavage, her long black hair pulled back into an elegant low ponytail, showing off the length of her creamy, pale skin dotted with freckles. Kara stared, slack-jawed, eyes trailing from silky hair, to smoky eyes, to blood red lips, to the little freckle in the middle of her throat. She stood there, brain short circuiting, eyes transfixed, mouth hanging open slightly, until the sound of a throat clearing pulled her out of her revery.

“Shall we?” Lena asked, motioning to the car.

Kara swallowed and nodded curtly. She forced her feet to move in the direction of the vehicle. She slid in beside Lena, her stomach jumping and her heart beating like a hummingbird’s wings. As they pulled away from the curb, Lena handed her a leather box. “This is for you.”

She opened it to find an elegant wristwatch inside.

“Inside the watch is a GPS tracking system. That way you can’t run away from me. And if you flash on anyone, tell me immediately, and then stay out of the way.”

Kara buckled the watch to her wrist. “Absolutely, yeah. I uh--I always run from a fight,” she joked, trying to dispel the anxiety in her gut.

The divider between the pair and the driver lowered to reveal Hank driving the car. “This isn’t a joke, Kara. No one who has ever seen Roulette alive has lived to tell about it.”

Kara’s head snapped back to Lena, “Is he being serious? Seriously?! What are my chances of getting into trouble?”

“Toughen up, you’ll be fine,” Hank growled. “Assuming you know how to tango…”

Kara lifted her chin in defiance. “Actually I did some preparation so--”

“We’re here,” Lena interrupted, turning to the blonde. “You ready?”

Kara took a deep breath and exited the car, extending a hand to Lena and helping her out. They walked up the red carpet and into the hotel, cameras flashing at the pair, left and right. In any other situation, Kara would have felt like a million bucks; fitted silk suit, classy event, gorgeous woman on her arm. But this wasn't an elegant date night, this was a life threatening mission, so instead of butterflies or even unwavering confidence, feelings of anxiety and dread settled low in the pit of her stomach.

Making their way through the inside of the hotel, they found themselves inside a large, ornate ballroom, pillars rising to meet the tall domed ceiling. Waiters moved around the room with trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres. As they made their way towards the stairs, a waiter approached with a tray of potstickers. Not one to pass up her favourite food, Kara grabbed the dumpling, dipping it into the provided sauce and immediately dripped it onto her white shirt.

“Shoot.” She crammed the dumpling into her mouth and tried to pull her jacket over the spot.

“Oh nice,” Lena laughed.

“I’ve been a spy all of five minutes, and I’ve already got soy sauce on my shirt,” Kara said dejectedly.

“Well, go and wash it off,” Lena replied. “And Kara, stop saying you’re a spy.”

“Right. Of course.”  _ Idiot _ . She moved to the ladies room to try to wash the stain out of her shirt as best she could. As she patted the spot down, she berated herself internally. She had wanted to impress Lena tonight, and here she was, already embarrassing herself. She threw the paper towel into the trash can and pushed the door open, slamming it into someone.  _ Nice _ .

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, sir! I’m so--” Suddenly, she flashed on the man’s face. She stuttered out an apology and then ran out to the ballroom, looking for Lena. She spotted her on the staircase, surveying the crowd, and bounded up to her.

“It’s him!” she hissed. “It’s Roulette!” 

Lena straightened up and looked around. “Where?” 

Kara casually pointed him out and Lena took her by the arm and led her out of the ballroom.

“We’ve identified the perp, as it were, so what are we still doing here? Mission accomplished, time to go!” Kara rambled as Lena led her to the bar.

“Wait here,” she directed, before turning around and heading back to the ballroom. Kara took a seat at the bar, as directed.

“Drink, miss?” She looked up to see Hank smirking at her from behind the bar.

“Yeah, I’d like a martini, barkeep. Shaken  _ and _ stirred,” she snarked back.

Hank set a Shirley Temple down in front of her, “There you go.” She glared at him.

“Kara Danvers?” A voice called from her right. She looked up to see a man in a tux standing next to her, and vaguely recognised him as someone she’d gone to college with. 

“What? No. No, the name’s Dawso--”

“Mike Matthews, dude!” The man exclaimed. “Remember? From NCU?”

Kara smiled politely, he clearly wasn't going to buy that it wasn't her. “Heyyyy, yeah, how have you been?”

“Oh, I’ve been great, man. I don’t know if you heard, but I sold out of my software company.” Kara suppressed the urge to beat her head against the bar.  _ Great _ , she thought,  _ another classmate living the life I was supposed to have. _

He was still speaking, “...so I’m kind of unemployed now, and I’m too young to retire, but I'm too rich to work.”

She gave a fake laugh, “Yeah, that’s quite a pickle you’ve found yourself in.”

“What are you up to these days? Last I heard, you were fixing computers or something?”

“Yeah, I uh--I’m in a supervisory role at a major electronics conglomerate.” It was technically the truth.

“Oh sick! But then, I always knew you’d make something of yourself,” Matthews smiled. “Who are you here with?” 

“Oh my date is right over there, black dress.” She pointed Lena out who was engaged in a conversation with Roulette.

Matthews’ jaw dropped. “Holy shit...she’s here with you?”

Kara nodded smugly, enjoying the lie for a moment.

“Nice…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “Well hey, gimme a call if you ever need a job or something...I know people.”

“I’ll bet you do,” Kara replied dryly, staring down at the business card. She squinted as she flashed on it and gasped. “Insider trading and offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands.”

The man paled. “What did you just say?  _ Are you with the SEC? _ ” He snatched the business card back from her, “I gotta go.” He rushed away from the bar, leaving Kara in a post-flash daze. She couldn't help but snicker at Mike's about-face when he thought she was coming to seize his ill-gotten gains. At least he was only ahead by cheating. And  _ he _ didn't have a gorgeous woman on his arm, however fake she might be. 

She looked over at Lena again, just in time to watch her be led away by Roulette and his men, a gun pressed to the back of her black dress. 

Hank climbed over the bar, catching sight of the situation. “Stay here.” He followed the group out of the ballroom.

Kara fidgeted with her fingers for a few minutes, before heading back into the ballroom. She walked over to the painting that she had flashed on in the paper and noticed it was in a different frame than the one in the photo. She stopped in front of the painting next to a beautiful Asian woman who was also admiring it. Suddenly, she flashed again. As she stood staring at the painting, and trying to make sense of the images she had seen, the woman next to her spoke.

“Beautiful painting, isn’t it?”

Kara turned to her and took in her elegant, low cut silk dress, and her long dark hair falling gracefully over her shoulders. “Y-Yeah, beautiful,” she stuttered, before turning back to the painting. “It definitely has, uh, a quality about it. Very--very...Bob Ross-ian, in its influence.”

The woman looked at her curiously, then smiled, holding out her hand. “I’m Veronica.”

“Kara,” she responded, shaking the hand offered. “Kara Dawson.”

The woman smiled and turned back to the artwork. “So do you like the painting?”

“Yeah, totally. Totally. I’m--I’m just more interested in the frame, but…” she trailed off as her cellphone rang. She pulled it out and, seeing it was Winn, declined the call and silenced it, putting it back in her pocket.

A waiter carrying a tray of champagne passed by and Veronica grabbed two flutes off the tray and offered one to Kara. She thanked her and took the glass, draining half the glass in one go, hoping the bubbly would ease her anxiety a bit.

Just then the band began to play a tango. “Mmm,” Veronica murmured, “I  _ love _ a tango.”

“Oh yeah, I mean, who doesn’t?” Kara responded half-heartedly.

Veronica looked at her with interest. “Do you?”

“Do I--do I wanna--? Uhhh…” Kara looked around, as if searching for the answer in the ballroom. She took a deep breath. “You know what? What the heck. Yeah, let’s give it a shot.” Veronica smiled, took her hand, and led her onto the dance floor. She took her place opposite Kara, and wriggled a finger in a ‘come hither’ motion. Kara moved to her slowly, placing her hand on the woman’s shoulder and grasping the other in her own, as Veronica did the same.

Veronica looked at the hand on her shoulder and chuckled. “I think your hand is supposed to be on my hip.”

Kara’s stomach dropped.  _ Oh god _ , she thought,  _ Kelly didn’t teach me how to lead. _ “Right. Um...apparently, I learned the girls’ part of this dance, so...would you mind leading?”

Veronica gazed up at her and gave her a seductive smirk, “Not at all.” She placed her hand on Kara’s hip and began to move their bodies in sync. She walked them across the floor, her hand sliding from her place on Kara’s hip to sit low on her back. They spun and dipped in time to the music, Veronica bringing her face so close to Kara’s that the blonde could feel her breath on her lips, then pulled back and spun, putting her back to Kara’s front, and raised her arms over her head. She did an intricate spin that resulted in them switching positions, Kara’s back now pressed to her front. She brought her hands up and placed them on the blonde’s chest, fingers spread wide. 

Kara blushed. She felt Veronica raise her hands up over her shoulders, then trailed them lightly down Kara’s body. She grasped Kara’s arms and pushed her away gently, before grabbing her hand and spinning her three times, finishing the dance by dipping the blonde low.

Kara gasped as she was dipped, then huffed out a laugh, looking up at Veronica. She cocked her head as she noticed a snake tattoo winding down below the woman’s dress, starting from her neck. Her eyes crossed and she flashed. Images of weapons, bombs, and Veronica holding a blade to someone’s throat flashed through her mind before a single name etched itself into her mind's eye:

_ Roulette _ .

***

Hank made his way up the stairs after the men who had grabbed Lena and watched them exit the stairwell onto the roof. He sidled up to the door and cracked it open, surveying the scene. Roulette (or who he thought was Roulette) stood, gun drawn on Lena, his two henchmen standing on either side of her.

“What’s your real name? And who do you work for?” he was yelling. “What are you doing here? And please don’t lie, it will make this much more painful.”

Hank caught Lena’s eye from his place just inside the door, and gave her a thumbs up before counting down from three. When he reached one, he threw the door open, gun raised, as Lena turned, snatching the gun from the hand of the man on her right and driving an elbow into his face, before turning the gun on the henchman to her left. Hank trained his gun on the leader, “Federal agents, don’t move!” 

The leader lowered his gun, “Don’t shoot! We’re British Secret Service, MI-6!”

“Drop your gun!” Lena ordered.

The man lowered his gun to the ground. “Everyone just take a deep breath. I’m putting down my gun, and I’m getting my identification, slowly.”

Lena walked towards him as he pulled out his badge, indicating he was indeed MI-6. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” he responded. “We’ve been pursuing an arms dealer across five countries.”

“Let me guess,” Hank interjected, “Roulette?”

“That’s right. MI-6 intercepted a painting with plutonium hidden in the frame. Rather than announce the bust, we removed the plutonium, but kept the auction, in the hopes of luring Roulette.”

“Well, if you’re not Roulette, then where the hell is he?” Hank asked.

***

Kara straightened up out of the dip and immediately felt her hands begin to shake. Veronica was Roulette. She had just tangoed with the most deadly and notorious arms dealer in the world. Veronica took her arm and led her back through the ballroom toward the bar.

“So,” Kara started nervously, her voice cracking, “what kind of work are you in, Veronica?”

Veronica stopped and looked up at her suspiciously, clearly picking up on Kara’s sudden discomfort. “Why are you so interested, Ms. Dawson?”

“No reason. Just...making conversation.”  _ Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out. _

A woman from the hotel staff walked up to the pair. “Excuse me, ma’am,” she said, looking at Kara. “Are you Kara Danvers?”

Her eyes widened in panic. “Who me?! No! No I’m Dawson, Kara Dawson!”

The woman spoke into the phone quietly, then turned back to Kara. “Are you sure you’re not Kara Danvers? Your friend, Mr. Schott, seems quite insistent.”

“No, no  _ I _ insist. I’ve never heard that name before in my life,” Kara responded, beginning to sweat. She glanced at Veronica, who was looking at her intently. “I gotta go...excuse me!” She turned to leave and found her path blocked by a large bodyguard, clearly one of Veronica’s thugs.

“Why don’t we head up to my room now, Ms. Dawson?” she said, another thug appearing beside her and pulling a gun on Kara. “Let’s find out who you really are.”

She led the group out of the ballroom and up the stairs to the elevators, taking them to the 10th floor. Upon entering her suite, Kara was forced down into a chair, hands and feet bound to the frame.

“Let’s start with an easy one,” Veronica began, picking up a hunting knife. “What’s your real name?”

“Dawson!! Kara Dawson!” she said, her terror apparent in her tone.

Veronica caressed the blade of the hunting knife, then whipped it at Kara, the blade burying itself into the chair between her thighs.

“KARA DANVERS, MY NAME IS KARA DANVERS!!” she whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Veronica asked, strolling over to her, pulling the knife out of the chair. “Now, before you answer my next question, I want you to think long and hard about my options here.” She knelt gently on Kara’s lap, running the flat side of the knife along her cheek. “There’s the old favourite: yank out a tooth...too noisy. Cut off a toe...too messy.”

“Far too messy!” Kara agreed.

“Or, we could chuck you off the balcony. Probably land face first, teeth go through the back of your head…” she tsked, “not a good way to go.” She stood up, pushing gently off of Kara’s lap. “So, here’s my question: who do you work for?”

Kara sighed, “No one.” 

Veronica tilted her head and gave her an exasperated look before motioning to her henchmen. They lifted Kara’s chair and began walking towards the balcony.

“No no wait stop! I fix computers for a living! I swear to god! I snuck into the party under a fake name to impress a girl! Please put me down!!!” Kara begged, frantically.

Veronica smirked, “Goodbye, Kara.”

Kara began to panic. She figured she might as well tell the truth, it might be the only thing that could save her. “No no wait! It’s a setup!”

Veronica turned sharply, “What is?”

“The painting. I think the painting might be a fake or something.” 

“Why?” Veronica asked, suspiciously.

“I saw a photo of the painting in the paper, ok? But it had a different frame. So I’m assuming maybe somebody swapped it out or something, I don’t know. But if I were you, I would not buy that painting.”

Veronica began to pace. “A fake painting...and you had no intention of bidding on it?”

“Me? No way. Not unless they were selling it for about $25, that’s about all I’ve got in my redecorating budget.” Kara rambled, anxiously.

“Okay,” Veronica said, training a gun on the blonde, “tell me how to fix a computer, Kara.”

Kara took a deep breath. “My first inclination is that your BUS speed is not up to snuff with your video card. I’m assuming we’re talking about a PC here, right? Is your memory dedicated?”

Veronica waved her off. “That’s enough, Ms. Danvers. I believe you.”

Kara sagged in relief.

“The problem is, since you’ve seen me, I have to kill you.”

“Ha--Have to? No no no! I disagree! I disagree  _ vehemently _ !!” Kara rambled out. “I can keep secrets, trust me! You don’t know the things I know about people!”

Veronica began attaching a silencer to her pistol. “Don’t worry, it will be fast. Goodbye Kara.” She moved to stand in front of Kara, gun in hand. “I enjoyed our tango.” She raised the gun to her head.

***

Hank and Lena dashed down the stairs into the ballroom, looking for any sign of Kara, but she was nowhere to be found. Lena pulled out the locating device attached to Kara’s watch and began to track the blonde’s movement. She saw that she had moved up to the 10th floor and was walking down a hallway. She relayed the info to Henshaw and headed to the elevators.

As the doors opened on the 10th floor, she ducked around the corner, Hank close behind, guns drawn. She kept an eye on the tracker as they made their way down the hall until they came to another corner, close to where Kara’s location was. Lena peeked around the corner and saw a thug guarding the door to the room. She motioned to Hank, who peered around the corner to check it out. He gave her a thumbs up and they joined hands, walking around the corner giggling, acting like a couple. 

They walked to the door across from the one being guarded and Hank turned, pretending to unlock it. Lena turned to the guard and greeted him politely before sending a hard kick to his knee, dislocating it and bringing him to the ground.

Inside the room, Veronica heard the commotion outside and shot through the door to the suite, sending Hank and Lena to the ground for cover. She turned and ran out onto the balcony, ditching her heels and climbing down to the floor below. The thugs began shooting through the door. Kara winced at the loud gunfire. As soon as there was a break in the noise Lena shouted for her to get down on the ground. Kara rocked her chair back and forth until she fell over.

Hank and Lena burst through the door, guns blazing, taking out the two henchmen. Lena rushed over to Kara’s side and began to untie her. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Okay? Am I okay? Two more seconds, and they were gonna throw me off the balcony!” she retorted.

“Did you tell them you work for us?” Hank growled, securing the suite.

“Of course not!” Kara responded, hotly. “Where the hell were you guys?”

Hank ignored her. “You’re still alive. I’d consider myself lucky.”

Kara sighed and laid her head back on the ground, panting. She was going to have a heart attack before this was all over.

Lena finished pulling the bindings off of her and helped her into a seated position, rubbing the angry red welts that had appeared on the blonde’s wrists. She was right. It was foolish to put Kara in the field. Things had gotten much too close tonight. She pulled Kara to her feet and led her back downstairs through the ballroom and into the passenger seat of the limo. She didn’t say a word as she drove Kara home, as she tried not to think about what would have happened if they had been a minute later. Every time she considered the what ifs, her heart would start to race and her stomach would drop.

_ She’s your asset, Lena. Of course you’d care what happens to her. If she dies, you fail your mission. That’s all. _

She wasn’t so sure she believed that voice anymore.

***

Kara entered the apartment late that night, closing the door softly behind her. As she moved through the apartment, she saw that Alex had fallen asleep on the couch. She walked over to her and pulled the blanket up to her chin.

She stirred and blinked up at Kara sleepily, “Hey. How was the big date?”

“It was good, great, fine. I’m gonna go to bed now. Love you.” she said quickly.

“What? Wait no! Is that all I get? Sit down!” Kara sighed and sat down on the other end of the couch. “I want to know everything,” Alex continued. “Do you like this girl?”

“It’s complicated,” Kara responded, dropping her hands into her lap.

“Well then, explain it to me slowly. I’ll catch up.”

Kara sighed, pausing to collect her thoughts. “She’s a very beautiful girl,” she began.

Alex nodded.

“And she’s very….agile…”

“I’m not sure how that applies, but continue.”

“And I think--I think she’s too...exhausting for me.” Kara finished, looking down at her hands.

“What happened? Did you guys tango?”

“Oh yeah, yeah we tangoed...but apparently, Kelly taught me the womans’ part of the tango, so it was a little difficult, as one might expect,” she said with a small smile. “And on that note, I’m going to bed,” she said, starting to rise from the couch. 

Alex pulled her back down. “No no no, you’re not getting off that easy.” She scooted closer to Kara. “Why won’t you talk to me?”

Kara’s thoughts spun. She wanted to tell Alex so badly, about Lena, about the Intersect, about the missions, about flying a helicopter and defusing a bomb. But she couldn’t. She needed to keep this hidden to keep her safe. She sighed, “Look it’s just--it’s complicated, ok? Can you just...let it go?”

Alex’s face fell. “Fine. You don’t want to talk to me, then don’t. But I suggest you find  _ someone _ to talk to about it. Like, maybe your idiot friend. He’s called about 100 times. He locked himself in a storage cage? Whatever that means…” She got up and went to bed, leaving Kara on the couch, lost in thought.

She stood up and grabbed her keys, heading to The Nerd Herd, not even bothering to change out of her tux. She arrived to find Winn asleep, curled into the fetal position on the floor of the storage cage. She unlocked the door and shoved the busted computer tower in front of it again to prevent it from locking, shaking him awake.

“Oh my god, dude. You have no idea how happy I am to see you!” Winn said, throwing his arms around her in a bear hug.

“Okay, settle down. What the hell happened?” she responded, pulling out of his grasp. 

“We were working on these computers and I accidentally moved the busted comp and got locked in and then Brainy and Nia left and I couldn’t get ahold of you and I’ve been in here all night!” He sounded close to tears.

“Alright, it’s okay buddy, why don’t you head home? I’m gonna stay and fix some of these hard drives.” 

Winn patted her on the back. “Sure you don’t need me for moral support?” 

She shook her head, “Nah, go get some sleep man, I appreciate it, but I think it’ll be nice for me to do something I’m actually good at for once.”

Winn smiled and bid her a goodnight. She took off her jacket, draping it over the chair, and sat down behind the desk, rolling her neck and pulling the first laptop towards her. She smiled. There was comfort in the familiar. She worked until morning, only stopping for bathroom breaks and coffee.

***

“Danvers, good work last night.” 

Kara looked up to see Hank walking towards her. She sighed, “You know what, I’m working on an all-nighter here and I’m just not in the mood for your sarcasm right now.”

Hank furrowed his brow. “I wasn’t being facetious. You helped us find Roulette.”

“Yeah, but she got away.”

“Yeah, but we got a photo from hotel security, we got a blood sample from a broken window, and our intel tells us she’s heading down to Central America, where we have people waiting for her.” He glanced down at Kara’s suit. “Looking sharp!”

Kara preened at the compliment. “Oh thanks!”

Hank sneered. “ _ That _ was sarcasm.” He walked away snickering. Kara rolled her eyes.

***

Lena stood in line at the coffee shop and thought about Kara. Things had gotten too close for her liking last night. She needed to step up her game if she was going to keep the blonde safe. She picked up her order and headed toward the Nerd Herd, lost in thought. As she walked past the Wienerlicious, a delivery woman with a long package bumped into her, with a muffled apology. Lena glanced up and caught the barest glimpse of a snake tattoo winding underneath the woman’s collar. She stopped and went completely rigid: Roulette was here.

She turned around and saw the woman begin to climb the ladder leading up to the roof of the hotdog joint. Lena pulled out her phone and called Hank. “I think we have company. I’ve got Roulette on the roof of the Wienerlicious. Get Kara to safety.”

She hung up and ran to the ladder, climbing as quickly and silently as she could.

***

“Well it’s the perfect amount of RAM for the type of video editing you’re talking about doing, and the webcam is state of the art, so I think this could be--” Kara was cut off from her sales pitch by Hank yanking her arm and pulling her into the backroom. “What the heck Hank? I was just about to make a sale!”

Hank pulled her down the hallway before shoving her into the storage cage and closing the door. “We’ve got company,” he snarled. “Stay in here, and stay low!” He turned and left. Kara paled and immediately crawled under the desk she had been working at all night, pulling her knees to her chest.

***

Lena reached the roof and gingerly stepped onto it, pulling out her handcuffs and wrapping them around her hand like brass knuckles. She hadn’t had time to grab her gun, so she was going to have to do this the hard way. She spotted Veronica over on the ledge of the roof, setting up a sniper rifle, clearly intent on taking Kara out when she exited the store.

Lena crept over to her until she was maybe two feet away, when Veronica swung around, bringing the rifle with her like a baseball bat. Lena dodged it, then brought a swift kick to the woman’s hand, knocking the gun to the ground. She brought up a handcuffed fist and landed two blows to the woman’s face before being jolted backward by a kick to the stomach. She stumbled and fell to her knees, earning a kick to the face. 

Veronica took advantage of her position, grabbing the agent’s head in an attempt to beat it against the ground, but didn’t get the chance, as Lena brought an elbow up and gave two hard shots to the face. Veronica fell backwards and Lena reared back and brought the handcuffs down as hard as she could against the woman’s temple. Veronica collapsed, unconscious.

Lena attached one cuff to the woman’s wrist and the other to the satellite configuration on the roof. “Hang here,” she said, spitting blood out of her mouth. She called it into the CIA, prompting a cleanup team to be sent out, then climbed off the roof to go check on Kara.

***

Hank spotted one of Veronica’s goons and made an announcement over the store intercom, calling Kara to the storage cage. Then he walked over to the thug, “Hi, welcome to the Nerd Herd, can I help you find anything?”

“Where’s the storage cage?”

“Oh, sorry but the storage cage is just for employees, sir.” Hank replied in his best customer service voice.

The goon pulled out a gun and pointed it at Henshaw. “Take me to it,  _ now _ !”

“Whoa, easy man, I’ll take you! Just don’t shoot.” Hank turned and led him to the backroom with a grin on his face. 

As they rounded the corner in the backroom, Hank stopped, causing the thug to run into him, then brought his elbow up to the man’s face, causing him to drop the gun. He threw a punch at Hank, who ducked it, grabbing the back of the man’s neck and bringing his face down to his knee. He aimed a kick at the thug’s face, rendering him unconscious. He picked up the man’s gun and his foot and dragged him through the back of the store, chuckling the whole way. 

“Is that guy dead?!” Kara asked, as Hank dragged the man past the storage cage toward the loading dock. 

Hank ignored her.

Just then, Lena came running into the backroom, a look of relief spreading over her face as she saw Kara locked safely in the storage cage. “Status?” she asked Hank.

“We’re clear. Appears to be just a two man job.”

Kara walked to the door of the cage. “Good call putting me in here, Hank. I guess it kinda worked out that the Nerd Herd is slow on the maintenance uptake.” She laughed and jiggled the handle of the cage. The door fell open slowly. 

Her jaw dropped. She turned to look between Lena and Hank. “That was busted this morning, I swear!” She looked back at the handle. “They must have fixed it after Winn got locked in last night. Oh god...what if the guy had made it back here…?” She trailed off, a terrified look passing over her face.

Hank chuckled, “Relax, nerd. You’re safe.”

***

That night, Kara walked into the kitchen to find Alex washing dishes. It was time to bite the bullet and find a way to talk to Alex. She couldn’t keep avoiding her. “Hey sis.”

Alex merely glanced up at her to acknowledge her presence.

She sighed, “Look, I’m really sorry Alex. I know that I’ve been pretty evasive, it’s just that I...I didn’t want to lie to you, so I chose not to say anything as kind of like, the lesser of two evils.”

Alex threw her a confused look. “Why would you have to lie to me?”

“I just---it’s complicated, ok?” She was so frustrated. She hated that it had to be this way between her and Alex. They’d always been so close, and now it felt as if she was constructing a brick wall between herself and her favourite person.

“So you want me to butt out? Fine, I get it. It’s none of my business.” 

“No! That’s not what I’m saying. I just--I--I just don’t want to create a false sense of excitement for a relationship that just...doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere.”

Alex shot her a disbelieving look. “And why would it not be going anywhere?”

Kara sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because she’s not really into me,” she replied, looking dejected.

“Uhhhhh no. I have seen the way that that girl looks at you. Trust me, she is into you.” Alex responded, drying the dishes in her hand.

Kara’s head snapped up. “...Really?”

“But it’s none of my business so--”

“No no! It’s--okay, what do you want to know?” Kara asked, walking to stand beside her at the sink.

Alex turned to face her, eyes intent on her face. “Okay, here it is: Do. You. Like. Her.?” 

Kara looked confused for a moment. “Is--is that it?”

“Yeah Kara, that’s it. I don’t need all the intimate details. That’s Kelly’s thing. I just want to know that you’re happy. So...do you like this girl?”

Kara was stunned. She expected a much more in depth interrogation. She pulled her thoughts back to the present. Did she like Lena? Did she like the way her hair fell around her shoulders, or the way she arched her eyebrow seductively? Did she like the way her body tingled every time the raven-haired agent was near her? 

“Yeah. Yeah I do.”

“Good.” Alex turned back to the dishes. “I don’t want to pester you, Kara. I just want you to be happy. You deserve that much. I know what an amazing woman you are, and so does Lena. But sometimes, I’m not so sure that you know it.”

Kara felt a lump rise in her throat and tried to swallow it back down. “How would you feel about a sibling hug situation right now?”

“I’m open to it.”

Kara pulled her into a strong hug. Maybe this could be enough. Maybe she didn’t have to tell Alex everything, as long as they still had this. She smiled into the embrace. The doorbell rang. 

“Oh that’ll be Lena, I invited her over for dinner.”

***

Kara walked Lena out into the courtyard. Dinner had been a success, much better than the souffle dinner had been. Alex, Kelly, and Lena all seemed to be hitting it off. She let herself hate the fact that it was fake for just a moment, before pulling herself back to the present where Lena was speaking.

“Congratulations on your first mission. You did a really good job.”

Kara fidgeted with her glasses. “You don’t have to say that. I’m not really a spy. Your computer only ended up in the head of a girl who knows how to fix them, nothing else.”

“You survived a near death experience under threat of torture, and apprehended one of the world’s most elusive killers.” She stopped and turned to Kara, eyebrow arched, a small smile playing across her face. “I’m not sure what it is you think we do exactly, but most of us would consider that a pretty good day.”

Kara sighed. “Sure. Fine. So today I helped take down a major international arms dealer, but tomorrow? Tomorrow I still have to go clock in at Nerd Herd.” She looked at Lena sadly. “I mean, what’s the good of being a hero if nobody knows about it?”

Lena fixed a strong look on her. “ _ You _ know about it.” Kara ducked her head, clearly not happy with the answer. “And so do I,” she added.

Kara lifted her head back up at that and gave her a small half-smile. Then her face changed into something Lena didn’t recognise. The blonde took a step towards her. “You know, if we were really dating, this would be the part where I’d be forced to kiss you goodnight.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Forced? Would it really be so bad?”

Kara gave her a wistful look. “I’m sure I could suffer through it.”

“Me too,” she replied softly. She gazed up at Kara for a moment before heading to her car with a goodnight. 

Kara stared after her, heart pounding, Alex’s question ringing in her head again.  _ So, do you like her? _ She shook her head, rubbing her temples. Yes, she did. And that was the problem.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to heat up between our ladies!   
> Kara in a tux? Yes please!  
> Lena in the gala dress? Obviously!  
> Danvers sisters moments? We live for them!
> 
> Hope you liked it!! 
> 
> See you next week!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara goes undercover to find out info on a dangerous shipment from the notorious Andrea Rojas. 
> 
> Tension mounts between Kara and Lena, leading to a potentially explosive outcome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today marks 13 years since Chuck first aired so I thought I'd upload this a little early in honour of the anniversary!
> 
> As usual, hope it ain't shit!

Weeks passed by Kara in a haze of Nerd Herd repairs, Intersect flashes, and fake dates with Lena. In the months since capturing Roulette, they’d stopped a diamond smuggler, a Russian arms dealer, a counterfeiter, and uncovered a plot to assassinate a Chinese agent who was defecting to the United States. 

Kara was proud of the work that they had done, but could not stop the constant anxiety that penetrated her mind every waking minute. She found herself looking over her shoulder everywhere she went, she worried over Alex and Kelly constantly, to the point where Kelly had begun to psychoanalyse her and suggest she see a doctor for Xanax. Every time she flashed on a subject, a feeling of terror, excitement, and exhaustion would settle into her chest. She’d taken to wearing a mouth guard at night, because she’d begun grinding her teeth in her sleep. That is, on the nights she  _ could  _ sleep. It wasn’t so much insomnia, as it was just being afraid to sleep too deeply, should some nefarious operative choose that vulnerable hour to attack. Some days it felt like she was operating on pure motor memory, living life in a daze.

Fake dates with Lena were the one bright spot in the madness. She loved spending time with the agent and learning more about her. (She loved scotch and kale, hated black olives, and would sometimes forget to eat if she was particularly deep in a mission. Kara couldn’t really relate to that last one.) But even there, when she knew it was all fake, it was getting harder and harder to separate fiction from reality. 

Sometimes things with Lena felt so real, like perhaps Kara’s feelings were returned, like when they double dated to a carnival with Alex and Kelly and Kara won her a goldfish. She had looked up at the blonde with the sweetest smile, eyes full of affection, and had pulled her into a deep kiss. Kara had replayed the moment in her head for days afterward. Or when they had family dinners with Alex and Kelly, and it was their turn to cook. It was almost as if someone had replaced badass CIA agent-Lena with domestic, lovestruck, feed-Kara-food-from-her-fingertips-Lena. It all felt so real and warm, Kara would soak in every second, basking in the feeling of being hers. 

And then there were the other times, times when the agent would make it perfectly clear that this was just a mission, that there was nothing there, that all of this was purely professional. She’d hold Kara’s hand around other people and then immediately drop it when they were alone again, as if Kara had burned her. She’d sit next to Kara on the couch, but scoot away the moment she could. She’d find ways to insert “just a cover” and “professional” into date night planning. It drove Kara insane. There was a thing under their thing, she knew it. No one was that good of an actor. She had turned this over and over in her mind, but no matter how often she examined Lena’s behaviour, she was no closer to an answer. She would just have to let things play out and hope something would happen organically.

As Kara sat at the Nerd Herd desk, lost in thought, the bell on the desk ringing brought her back to the moment. She looked up to see a cute brunette standing in front of her, looking just as anxious as Kara felt.

“Hi, my phone stopped working! I keep pressing the button and nothing is happening and I really need this phone to work because my entire life is on this thing--” the woman rambled out. She had an adorable British accent. “--and if it dies, I will lose everything and I’ll have to start over and I can’t start over!” 

Kara smiled, “Whoa! Let’s just take a breather here!”

“What if I lose everything?” the woman continued breathlessly, starting to pace. “I can’t start from scratch again. I can’t be the person I was before I got this phone!”

Kara walked around the Nerd Herd desk to stand in front of her, straightening her tie as she went. “Listen to me, uh--” she gestured to the woman for her name.

“Imra.”

“Imra--that’s a lovely name--Imra, everything is going to be fine. This is kind of my world, okay? This is sorta what I do, and I do it pretty well, so just….trust me?” She held out a hand for the girl’s phone.

Imra handed the phone to Kara. “I know, I’m totally spazzing out, I’m sorry. It’s just a little overwhelming to even consider losing--”

“No no no! Don’t go back there!” Kara cut in, trying to calm the girl, placing her hands on her shoulders. “Look, I promise if you come back tomorrow, your phone will be all fixed up and good to go, ok?”

“Really?” Imra asked, hopefully.

“Yeah!”

“Thank you so much...Kara.” She said, glancing down at the blonde’s name tag. “If you can fix it, you’ll literally be my hero.”

Kara grinned and waved as the woman walked away. She had a very nice...walk.

She turned to see Winn staring at her, shaking his head in disappointment. “What?”

“Caught you, dude.” 

Kara looked at him blankly.

“Mind cheating with the broken phone girl,” he clarified. “I mean, I get it. Her hair looks like licorice. I just want to chew on it.” Kara looked at him in disgust. “But you, I mean god Kara, you’ve already got hair to chew on, you know? Remember? Lena?”

Kara sighed. She’d forgotten she wasn’t allowed to flirt anymore. She had a "girlfriend" now, and it would look bad if she was caught entertaining the thought of being with anyone else. 

Which is how she found herself on yet another double date with Alex and Kelly, this time a sushi dinner date. Lena poured the sake as Kara ordered for the two of them. 

“So, I didn’t realise you were so old fashioned, Kara.” Kelly said, after the waiter left.

“What? Why? Because I ordered for Lena?” She glanced at the agent quickly. “Well...I guess I just know what she likes.”

Lena held her hand on top of the table and leaned close to her, placing a kiss on her cheek. “Yes you do.”

“No,” Kelly laughed, waving her off. “I mean old fashioned in the bedroom department. I would have expected to see Lena spending the night more, by now.”

Alex smacked her arm in disgust. “Ugh! That’s my sister you’re talking about, babe!”

Kelly shrugged. “What? I’m just saying, it feels like Kara’s side of the apartment took a vow of celibacy!”

“That is none of our business, Kelly!” Alex glared at her girlfriend, pointedly. She turned to Lena, “Ignore her. You guys want to take things slow and I respect that. Not everyone hitches up the uhaul after the first date.” She clinked her glass of sake against Lena’s, who was feeling more than a little uncomfortable with the entire situation. 

Lena glanced over at Kara who was staring down into her lap, face red. She squeezed the blonde’s clammy hand, and only then did Kara realise the death grip she had on hers. She released it quickly and wiped her hands on her pants. This was not the direction she’d seen the night taking. 

After dinner, they had headed back to the apartment for a movie night, and Lena pulled her aside in the kitchen while Alex and Kelly sat on the couch, watching the film that Kara had picked out. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Sure, what’s up?” Kara asked, taking a sip of her beer.

“I’m a little worried about our cover. I think Kelly had a point tonight. I think it’s time for us to make love.”

Kara snorted her beer up into her nose, and coughed hard. " _What?_ "

Lena blushed. "Fake make love. For our cover."

Kara rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. “Um. Right. Yeah. Sure.”

"I'll come by the Nerd Herd tomorrow for lunch and we can discuss it more."

Kara just gave her a thumbs up, unable to form coherent thoughts anymore. 

***

Kara sat at the Nerd Herd desk, lost in thought. She was going to sleep with Lena. Well, fake-sleep with Lena. The thought filled her with anxiety and hope in equal measure. The thought of waking up next to Lena made her warm, but the thought of faking sex seemed juvenile and depressing. She hadn’t gotten laid in a long time, and the thought of sleeping next to a beautiful woman like Lena, who she so frequently blurred the lines of dating and work with, without being able to actually be with her, felt like a cruel trick of the universe.

Kara glanced up at the sound of heels approaching the Nerd Herd desk, to find Imra approaching. “Hey!” she greeted brightly.

“Okay, give me the verdict,” Imra responded anxiously. “I can take it.”

“Are you sure you want to know?” Kara teased.

“If you’re teasing me, please stop. I actually can’t take it.”

Kara smiled and held out her phone. “Good as new...ish.”

Imra took the phone and powered it on, looking up at her in shock. “Oh my god, I don’t believe it! Thank you!” She threw her arms around Kara’s neck, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Hey, yeah...no worries.” Kara said awkwardly, returning the embrace.

Lena walked into the Nerd Herd just then, and saw Kara hugging a cute brunette. She watched as the girl pulled out of the hug and leaned in to say something to Kara, clearly flirtatious, if the blush that spread across Kara’s face was any indication. She felt a wave of nausea rise in her chest as she watched the blonde smile back at the woman. As she approached them, she caught the tail end of their conversation, which seemed to be about food (she hoped).

“...you should come by the shop and taste it fresh,” Imra was saying, suggestively.

Kara blushed and gasped out, “Yeah….yeah that would be--” she glanced up and saw Lena approaching, “--Lena!”

Lena came to a stop next to Kara and put her arm around her shoulders.  _ I’m just protecting our cover _ , she thought to herself. She turned to the other woman and smiled, “Hi! I’m Lena!”

The woman looked up at her, clearly catching onto the situation.

Kara flushed. “Um--th-this is Imra! I was--I was fixing her phone for her and she was just stopping by to pick it up.” She looked over at Imra who was staring at her expectantly. “Who’s that? Oh, that’s Lena,” she continued nervously, running her hands over her tie.

“Yeah, she said that,” Imra said with a fake laugh. “Who is Lena?”

“Lena is--well, she’s sort of my...uh…”

“Girlfriend,” Lena finished, reaching out to shake Imra’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Imra returned the handshake and niceties before excusing herself, but not before shooting a glare at Kara. The blonde stared after her forlornly. Lena tried to hide her annoyance at that fact.  _ God Luthor, what is wrong with you? Keep it professional. _

“Come on. We need to talk.” She grabbed her hand and led her out of the store and over to the Wienerlicious, where they sat down at one of the outside tables. “I just wanted to go over some things, and make sure we’re all set for tonight’s...mission.”

Kara blushed. “Yeah! Yeah I mean, you know, it’s been awhile since I’ve slept with someone...n-not--not  _ slept _ with someone!! But you know, just...slept with someone,” she stammered out. "You know what, it’s actually been awhile since I’ve done either one so..”

“Kara, I know this is a little bit uncomfortable--”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s just that we have to do it--”

“Got it.”

“I mean--not  _ do it _ \--”

“I got it.”

“So we don’t blow--"

"I got it!"

"--our cover.”

_ “I got it!!” _ Kara exclaimed, face red. She reached up to fidget with her glasses.

Lena smiled at her. “It’s going to be fine, Kara.” She reached out and took the blonde’s hand, but Kara immediately retracted it. She frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I gotta go, my lunch break is over.” She stood and walked back to the Nerd Herd, thinking back to the first fake date with Lena, and then earlier, how Lena had shut down any chance with Imra. She wondered, briefly, how many times the United States government was going to clam jam her.

***

Kara lit the candles in her bedroom and put on some music. If Alex or Kelly came in by chance, she didn’t want there to be any doubt as to what was going to be happening in there that night. 

The door creaked open as Lena stepped in. She looked around the room at the candles and arched an eyebrow, “Wow, Kara. What do you think is going to happen here tonight? You realise we’re only spending the night together for cover, right?” 

Kara flushed, “Yeah! Why--why would I possibly think anything else? It’s--It’s---nothing. It’s just for the cover.” She turned away from Lena and pulled back the duvet on the bed. “I’d say by now, I’m pretty comfortable with the concept of faking it.” 

Lena pulled off her clothes, revealing a silky black lingerie number that contrasted with her pale, creamy skin. Kara shot up in bed, “Whoa whoa wait a minute! You’re giving me crap about some candles and you show up wearing  _ that _ ?!”

Lena looked down at herself. “What? This? This is part of my cover!”

“Well, it doesn’t cover a thing.” Kara retorted.

“And what if Alex or Kelly were to walk in? This is exactly what I would wear if I were trying to seduce you. It’s what they’d be expecting. I’m just being professional.”

“...Yeah, the world’s oldest profession,” Kara muttered.

Lena gaped at her in shock as she climbed into bed. “Did you just call me a prostitute? That’s really nice Kara. Jesus, what’s the matter with you today?”

Kara merely rolled over, saying nothing. Lena laid down next to her and opened a book that she’d brought with her, but her eyes never moved across the page. She wasn’t used to this side of Kara. This had to be about the girl from earlier. Or maybe it was just Intersect related stress. Either way, it wasn’t good for their cover for them to be fighting like this, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, she kind of hated the thought of Kara being mad at her. She considered trying to talk, but chose instead to let the moment lie. Kara would reach out when she was ready. Besides, she’d never been good at the feelings stuff anyway.

A few minutes later, Kara rolled over and gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Lena. I’m sorry I called you a prostitute. I know you’re just doing your job.”

Lena gave her a soft smile. “Thank you for saying that. Now,” she closed her book, “do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

Kara hesitated, “What exactly are the rules with our...thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I guess--I don’t know. Are we allowed to see other people?”

Lena shifted uncomfortably. So it was about Imra then. “Well, our cover is that we’re dating, so tactically, that would be challenging. Plus, any prospective date would have to endure a rigorous vetting process to determine her motivations.”

Kara gaped at her. “W-wouldn’t her motivation be love?”

“Ideally. But you’re a very important piece of intelligence, and you have to be handled with extreme care.” She gave Kara an apologetic smile. “It’s hard to have a real relationship in our line of work.”

“Apparently it’s hard to have a fake relationship too.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I never feel like our time together is work.” She smiled at Kara sweetly. “But, unfortunately that doesn’t change the fact that we can’t be sure of any prospective girl’s intentions, and it’s my job to protect you at all costs.”

Kara settled back down into the sheets, disappointed. “Well, that’s very nice,” she said wryly.

“Kara, I don’t have to be a spy to piece together the clues here. You’re interested in that Imra girl, aren’t you?”

Kara stayed silent for a moment. “I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?”

And with that, she rolled over and tried to sleep. Lena laid awake for a few hours after that, turning over the situation in her mind. She sympathised with Kara, of course. She didn’t ask to be put in this position, life upended, hopes for a prospective love life dashed. But, try as she might, she couldn’t ignore the niggling voice in her head, the one buried wayyyy back in the depths of her mind, that was just the littlest bit happy about that last part. She shoved that voice down deep, buried in a tiny box, and finally, sleep found her.

***

The next morning, Kara, Lena, and Hank were gathered around Hank’s computer, speaking with General Haley.

“We have credible information that a volatile package is coming into the Port of National City,” Haley was saying. “The cargo itself is time sensitive, which could mean a weapon. Your job is to find it so we can extinguish the threat. The cargo is being moved through the shipping company of an Andrea Rojas, who also owns a nightclub in downtown National City--The Acrata Club. Get close to her, see if you flash on anything, plant a bug on her, and see if she leads us to where the weapon is coming in.”

“Looks like you’re up, dork,” Hank said as they signed off. 

“Me? Why me? Why not you?” Kara stammered out.

“She leans your way,” Hank said, simply.

“Okay, but then what about Lena?”

“I don’t have the Intersect,” Lena said, calmly. “You need to get close to her to see if you flash on her or any of the information she gives you.”

Kara sighed resignedly. She apparently had no choice in the matter.

***

That night, Lena came by with a dress for Kara to wear to the club. “We analyzed pictures of Andrea’s most recent relationships to find what kind of style she likes in her women,” she said, handing Kara the dress. “Keep your glasses on, hair down, and try to exude as much confidence as you can.”

“Right, confidence. That definitely sounds like me,” Kara muttered, pulling the dress out of the garment bag. It was a slinky black number that hugged all of her curves and showed off her reasonably toned arms. God, she hated dresses.

She returned from the bathroom after changing and doing her makeup. “How do I look?”

Lena stared up at the blonde, mouth slightly agape.  _ Holy Shit. _ “Wow. You look...incredible.” She cleared her throat, trying to gloss over the moment. “And here is your earpiece, so you can hear us.”

Kara stuck the earpiece in place and strapped on the heels Lena had provided, taking a few tentative steps. “I hate heels. And dresses for that matter.”

Lena smiled apologetically, taking her arm and leading her out the front door. “I know, and I’m sorry. But we need to make sure you catch Andrea’s eye, and trust me, dressed like this, you absolutely will.”

“I’m not sure if I’m entirely happy with that fact, but thank you.”

Before long, they were pulling up to the Acrata Club. Lena reached into a drawer and pulled out a small guitar-shaped pin. “Here, pin this to your dress, it has a microphone in it.”

Kara took it from her. “Are you kidding me? I can’t wear this! I’ll look like an idiot!”

“As opposed to how you look any other day?” Hank sneered, putting on his headset.

Kara glared at him. “Seriously? Don’t you have anything smaller? Can’t I just take the actual bug?”

“No, because if you have to leave the bug somewhere, this pin won’t be looked at twice. A bug will draw some attention.”

Kara sighed and pinned the little guitar to the strap of her dress. “I feel ridiculous.”

Hank snickered. Lena leaned over and put her hands on Kara’s shoulders, thumbs caressing her arms lightly. “You’re going to be fine. You look great, and Hank and I are going to be right here if anything goes wrong.” 

Kara took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright, let’s do this.”

“Remember! Exude confidence!”

Kara jumped out of the surveillance van and did her best to strut over to the door. It must have worked because she’d barely reached the velvet rope when the bouncer drew it back and let her in. She sauntered into the club and headed for the bar, searching the room for Andrea. 

“I’m in. I don’t see Andrea anywhere. I’m going to hit the bar and then circle around again,” she said into her comms. She flagged down the bartender and ordered a whiskey. She hoped that the beverage would help her calm down and ‘be confident’. The bartender returned with her drink and a sultry voice next to her said, “Put it on my tab.”

She turned to look for the source of the voice and found herself face to face with Andrea Rojas.  _ Ok, so the dress worked _ . She looked at the woman’s face and suddenly flashed. Images of guns, drugs, stolen goods, even illegal food items, shot through her mind. Andrea wasn’t just in the shipping business, she realised, she was a smuggler.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said coolly.

“Oh please, it’s my pleasure,” Andrea replied. She glanced down to Kara’s dress. “I like your pin.”

“Oh thanks…”

“I would’ve worn mine too, but I left it in the 80s.”

Kara gave a nervous laugh at that. God, she hated that stupid pin.

“So, do you have a name?” Andrea asked seductively.

“Kara. Kara Danvers.”  _ Shit. She used her real name. _

“Andrea Rojas. This is my club.” She ran her eyes up and down Kara’s body. “Well, Ms. Danvers, would you care to join me in the VIP lounge?”

Kara drew herself up to her tallest height. “Why would I do a thing like that?” she asked, leaning toward the woman.

The woman bit her lip and leaned closer. “I think you’ll find it would be worth your while.” She turned to walk away. “Drinks are on me tonight.”

“Go with her, moron,” came Hank’s voice through the earpiece. Kara rolled her eyes and followed her to the VIP lounge.

She sat down on one of the couches, the leather sticking to the backs of her thighs. She pressed a hand down to unstick them, and nearly toppled over as her sweaty palms slid across the material. Luckily, Andrea didn’t seem to notice. The woman settled down onto the seat next to her, looking almost predatory.

“So, Andrea, you’re in the club game?” She threw an arm over the back of the couch and tried to exude confidence, as instructed.

Andrea scooted closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and handing her a drink. “Mmhmm. But you’ll find I can be very versatile. I stick my fingers in lots of different places.”

Kara nearly choked on her drink.

***

Outside in the van, Hank and Lena were listening to the events unfold.

“Maybe I should go in there,” Lena suggested, concern evident in her voice.

Hank looked over at her and shook his head. “Same bit with you, isn’t it?”

Lena shot him a sharp look, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “You fall for the people you work with. First James, now Kara.”

“James was a mistake,” she scoffed. “And I haven’t fallen for Kara.”

“Whatever you say, sister. And just so we’re clear: I'm not interested.”

Lena rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the monitors. She was NOT falling for Kara. The thought was ridiculous. It was merely her job to keep her safe, and as far as she was concerned, everyone in that club was a threat. Particularly the sexy club owner who seemed intent on exploring every inch of Kara’s body with her wandering hands. It wasn’t about  _ feelings,  _ it was about security. 

She nodded once to herself.  _ Yes. Security. That’s all it is. _

***

Kara had recovered from Andrea’s comment and was trying to steer the conversation back to the woman’s other endeavours. “So, you said you’re versatile...professionally. What else do you do?”

Andrea gave her an odd look, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Just trying to see if we are maybe in the same kind of business,” Kara said, her anxiety returning with a vengeance.

“What business are you in?”

“Me? Uh, computers mainly.”

“Then no, we’re not in the same business,” Andrea replied, fiercely. She ran her hand along Kara’s shoulders and stopped at her neck, wrapping her hand around it firmly. “You have a thin neck...like a chicken.”

Kara gulped and tried not to be offended as well as terrified.

“Have you ever snapped a chicken’s neck before, Kara? It’s easier than you think…”

***

Lena slammed down her headset. “That’s it, I’m going in.”

“Luthor!” Hank shouted in protest.

Lena ran into the club, flashing her badge at the bouncer, and began trying to locate Kara. Things had been getting too close lately, with the blonde’s safety, and she wasn’t going to let her get hurt again. She made her way toward the VIP lounge, spotting Kara with Andrea half in her lap. That nausea that she had felt when seeing the blonde with Imra suddenly made a comeback.

Kara looked up and saw Lena approaching. She pushed Andrea’s legs off of her and stood up quickly. “I--I’m sorry, I just saw someone...I need to--I’ll be right back!” She dashed out of the lounge, and over to Lena.

“What are you doing in here?” she shouted over the music.

“I wanted to make sure you were alright,” the agent replied in her ear, her breath hot on Kara’s skin.

“I’m fine!” She glanced up and saw a man making his way toward them. She flashed on his face. The same smuggling pictures from Andrea’s flash popped into her head. He was Andrea’s father. She looked at Lena in shock. “Andrea’s father just walked in!”

“Follow him! Get the mic closer, we need to be able to hear what they’re saying!” She turned and headed back out to the van.

Kara followed the man back over to the VIP section, but was blocked by the bouncer. “I was literally  _ just _ in there! Like, 2 seconds ago!” The bouncer merely looked at her menacingly.

Hank’s voice crackled over the comms. “Ok this is it, get the mic closer!”

Kara looked around, trying to find some way to get into the lounge. She briefly considered just tossing the pin into the room, when she saw Andrea’s father motioning to someone. She looked over and saw a server with a tray of drinks headed toward the lounge. She quickly removed the pin from her dress and, as she walked by the waitress, casually dropped it onto the tray. She watched the server set the tray down on the Rojas’ table and walk away.  _ Success. _

She turned and ducked out of the club, heading back to the van. She was climbing in when she heard Mr. Rojas’ voice on the speaker. 

“...tomorrow night, the package is time sensitive so if it expires, we’re all dead.”

“Gotcha.” Hank said triumphantly.

“Nice work, Kara,” Lena said, as the blonde settled down next to her. “Thanks to you, we know when and where the weapon is going to be!”

***

Kara was standing behind the Nerd Herd with Hank and Lena the next day, going over the plan for defusing whatever bomb or weapon was coming into the Port.

“We’ll go in heavy with an HRT team and the bomb squad, and once we see what we’re working with, we’ll know if we need to give an evacuation order or not,” Hank was saying.

“And where exactly will I be for all of this?” Kara asked, anxiously.

“As far away as possible. At home, would be best,” Lena responded. “You’re too valuable. We don’t need you anywhere close to a potential bomb.”

The back door to Nerd Herd opened and Nia stepped out. “Hey Hank, a pallet of computers fell over, we need your muscles.”

Hank rolled his eyes and headed back inside with Nia.

Kara stepped toward Lena, fidgeting with her glasses. “Are you sure you have to be there for this tonight? I don’t like the idea of you being anywhere close to a potential bomb either, you know.”

Lena smiled at her softly. “It’ll be fine, Kara. Our bomb squads are very good at what they do.”

“Yeah but I still don’t like--”

She was cut off by the sound of tires squealing. A black sedan pulled up and two men hopped out, guns drawn. Kara recognised one of them as the VIP bouncer from the Acrata Club. They shoved Kara and Lena into the trunk of the car, and peeled off. Kara found herself pressed against Lena, her front to the agent’s back. She only had a brief second to consider their closeness before survival instincts kicked in.

“One of the guys! He’s the bouncer from the club!” Kara hissed into Lena’s ear. “He’s one of Andrea’s guys. Why do you think she wants us?”

“I don’t know. And worse, I don’t know how she found you.” 

Kara thought for a moment. Then it dawned on her. “The pin. That stupid guitar pin. I had to leave it on the tray so that we could hear them. They must have found it and the bug and come after me.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “Of course.” A lightbulb went off. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to be wearing that watch I gave you the night of the Roulette mission, would you?”

Kara lifted her arm, showing Lena the watch. “Yeah, I never take it off except to shower. The likelihood of me being kidnapped has risen exponentially this year, and I kinda liked the idea of you guys always knowing where I am.”

Lena smiled, reaching out to the watch and pressing a button. A red light started blinking. “There, that’ll alert Hank that you’re in danger and give him our location.”

The car rolled to a stop and the trunk popped open. They were pulled roughly out of the car and led to a small warehouse. Kara could smell the sea air as they marched the pair into the building. They led them over to two chairs and tied their hands behind their backs.

Andrea stepped into the building, followed by her father.

“Time is of the essence, so I’ll cut to the chase,” she said, picking up a power drill on her way over to them. “I have a very important piece of cargo that is about to be picked up. I need to know who else knows about it.”

Kara and Lena exchanged a glance, then sat silently. Hank would be there soon with a SWAT team. They just needed to hold out until then. 

Andrea stepped up to Kara and squeezed the trigger on the drill.

“Okay, I’ll talk!” Kara shouted.

“No, Kara!”

Kara ran through the items that she remembered the Rojas’ had smuggled.  _ Guns, ammo, drugs, deli meats… _ “We know about the--imported salami! And--and we are so cool with it! I mean, the real crime is that it’s illegal to begin with, honestly. There’s no need for torture here, Andrea!”

Andrea stepped towards her with a smile. “Kara, sweetie, I’m not going to torture you.”

Kara’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Oh good, glad we’re on the same page.”

“I’m going to torture  _ her _ ,” she said, stepping over to Lena.

“No no no!! We’re not on the same page anymore, Andrea. We’re not even in the same book! Please, please don’t torture her!” Kara shouted as Andrea stepped closer to Lena, drill whirring.

“I won’t, if you’ll kindly tell me who else knows about our shipment.” Andrea replied sweetly.

A man from the Port office stepped into the warehouse just then, clipboard in hand. “The package is here! Berth 19. We’ve got 5 minutes until it expires, ma’am.”

Kara flashed on the paper in the employee’s hands. She turned to Lena and whispered, “There’s a weapon in the shipment, I think it’s some kind of chemical bomb, we have to get to it before it blows.”

Andrea turned back to them. “I guess, since we don’t have time to play anymore, we’ll just have to kill them.” She motioned to her henchmen and left, her father following.

The thug raised his gun to Lena’s head, but was interrupted by Hank’s SWAT team bursting into the building. As a gunfight began, Lena kicked Kara’s chair, rolling her behind a stone pillar, protecting her from the gunfire. Hank ran over and untied her. 

“Andrea and her father ran off just as you guys were coming in. They went that way,” Lena said, motioning towards a set of stairs.

“I’ll take care of them, you go get the bomb!” 

Lena ran over and untied Kara, pulling her to her feet and out the door. “I want you to get as far away from here as possible, Kara!”

“No way, I’m coming with you!” Kara exclaimed as they ran toward Berth 19.

“No, Kara listen to me, you’re not going anywhere near a live bomb!”

“Do you know how to defuse a bomb, Lena? Do you have an Intersect in your head? I didn’t think so!” She took off in a sprint toward the device’s location.

They rushed into the warehouse labeled Berth 19 and were met with a large crate, about six feet tall and just as wide. Lena grabbed two crowbars and tossed one to Kara, who got to work prying the front of the crate off. They worked quickly and soon the whole side of the crate went crashing to the ground.

They peered inside and found a long cylindrical steel container, much like an oversized oxygen tank, a timer set into the front, counting down from one minute. Kara stared at the container, waiting for a flash, but nothing happened. She squeezed her eyes closed and opened them again, staring intently at the timer, willing herself to flash. 

Lena knelt down and pulled the timer faceplate out, then the timer, to reach the wires behind it.

“Okay...okay Intersect, it’s time to flash!” Kara said to herself. “Come on, show me how to do this.”

“Did you flash?” Lena asked, hopefully.

“No, nothing!”

She turned back to the bomb. It was pointless, she knew. She had no idea how to disarm the bomb. They were going to die here. She heard Kara berating herself behind her for not being able to flash.

_ "Come on, come on!! Flash you stupid computer, FLASH!!" _

“Kara, that’s enough! I need you to run, okay?”

Kara turned back to her, eyes indignant. “I’m not leaving you here!”

“Go, Kara! That’s an order!”

Kara set her jaw. “No!”

Lena stood up and pulled out her gun, pointing it at Kara’s face. “I said: GO!”

“Oh I see, so you’re gonna shoot me to prevent me from being blown up? Yeah that’s a great plan, Lena!”

“Why are you so stubborn?!”

“Well, I guess you just bring out the worst in me!” Kara retorted.

Lena stepped forward, tucking her gun back in her waistband. “And you, in me!”

A high pitched beeping made its way into their argument. They looked over at the bomb as it counted down from 10 seconds. Lena looked back at Kara. She supposed if she was going to die with anyone, she didn’t really mind it being her. She allowed herself to feel a moment of regret for never allowing herself the opportunity to be honest about her developing feelings for the blonde.

Kara looked at her sadly, her ocean blue eyes holding no fear, and no tears, just sorrow. “Well, it was nice knowing you.” She closed those dazzling eyes.

Lena looked up into her face, heart racing. They were both going to die. Did she really want to die never knowing? 

_ Fuck it. _

She grabbed Kara's face with both hands and pulled her into a deep bruising kiss. 

Kara’s eyes shot open at the sensation, freezing for just a moment, before returning Lena’s passion in equal measure. She wrapped her arms around the agent, pulling her in close, not an inch between them, as Lena’s tongue danced across her lips, pleading for entrance. She gave it to her willingly. Kara’s hand slid down the agent’s back, dipping low, while the other stayed firmly in place, not allowing Lena an ounce of movement. 

Lena lost herself in the moment completely. She braced the blonde’s face firmly between her hands, then let one fall down to her neck, where she felt the tendons strain against the skin in her passion. It wasn’t a thin neck at all. It was thick and strong and tense and---why was she thinking about her neck when Kara’s tongue was running over hers, filling her mouth and tasting of saliva and sweat and clouding her senses with something so distinctly  _ Kara _ ?

It was only a moment or two later (far too soon if you asked either one), that it hit the two of them that they weren’t dead. Lena pulled away from the kiss slowly, staring up into Kara’s eyes, the blonde’s pupils largely dilated. They were both panting heavily, as Lena stepped back and looked over at the “bomb”, whose timer read zero. She looked back to Kara, who was staring at her, a stunned look cast over her gorgeous features.

The agent took a deep breath.  _ Shit. _

“Well...the good news is we’re alive.” She gave a nervous laugh. “And the bad news is...that this is kind of an uncomfortable moment, right now.”

Kara seemed to come out of her daze a little bit. “It’s...it’s completely comfortable on my end….just saying…”

Lena looked up at her in surprise, before schooling her features. 

Hank came bursting through the door to the berth, SWAT following behind them.

“You guys okay?” He called.

Lena stepped away from Kara, “Yeah. Yeah we’re fine. I guess it wasn’t a bomb. Either that, or it was defective.” She moved away from the blonde. She could feel her pale features warming from the flush that was starting in her face and spreading to her neck. She needed to get away from her. This was not good. 

Kara stood in the same place, turning the kiss over and over in her head until Hank came to take her home. She moved robotically, not speaking, fingers dancing lightly over her lips as she mulled over the implications of Lena’s actions. Lena had kissed her,  _ really  _ kissed her. What did this mean? Did Lena actually return her feelings? Was it just some weird in-the-moment adrenaline thing? Did she want to do it again? Kara sure did. 

Hank congratulated her on the ride home for helping them arrest Andrea and her father, but Kara merely gave a noncommittal grunt in return, so engrossed in her thoughts of what she had thought were to be her last moments on earth.

She stood in the shower that night, pondering the kiss and Lena’s potential feelings, and when she went to sleep that night, the last thought on her mind was of Lena’s soft, warm lips on hers. 

***

Hank held the door open for Lena as they stepped into the Berth. The bomb squad had been working all night to crack the so-called bomb open, and they were finally getting somewhere. The squad officer in charge walked over to them. “It’s all clear. She looks mean, but it’s non-lethal. That timer wasn’t a fuse, it was measuring an oxygen supply.”

"An oxygen supply? For what?" Hank asked.

“No idea. We’re cracking it open now. So, I guess we’ll all find out together.”

They stepped up to the tank as it opened, hydraulics hissing. Lena’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Hank mumbled, “What the fuck?”

Lena looked down into a face she thought she’d never see again. A face she’d shared so many moments with and had thought was dead and buried.

“Oh my god...James.”

The man laying in the tank took a breath, but remained unconscious. Lena stepped closer to the edge of the tank, tears streaming down her face. 

James Olsen, her former partner and previous lover, the man who had betrayed his country and brought Kara into her life, was alive.

***


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James has returned from the dead. What does that mean for Kara and Lena?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! 
> 
> Hope it ain't shit!

Lena stood at the window of the observation room and stared at the man lying on the table in front of her. She knew that face so well, and yet this man was a complete stranger to her. The white scrubs the NSA team had placed him in contrasted with his dark skin and laid bare the treatment of the months he’d been “dead”. He’d lost weight, but he was still as tall and handsome as ever. Still broad-shouldered and muscular, even if he’d lost a little of that.

She was trailing her eyes down his prone form, when she noticed his hands twitch. She quickly looked up to his face and saw him take a deep breath, his wrists straining against the soft material of the medical cuffs holding him in place. She ran out of the observation room to grab the doctor on duty.

When she returned to the observation room, Henshaw was leaning against the wall, staring through the glass with a suspicious look on his face. Lena watched the doctor approach James, saw him whisper something to her. She quickly hit the intercom button.

“What did he say?”

The doctor approached the glass. “It sounded like:  _ Kara. _ ”

***

_ “This is Lena. Please leave a message.” *beep*  _

“Hey, Lena, hey it’s Kara. Look if you could just call me--whenever--that would be great. It’s just I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for awhile and you haven’t been answering and so I’m just kind of hoping you could--”

“Hey! Who you calling?” Winn came bounding up to the Nerd Herd desk and sat on top of it. “Is it Lena? Is she still ignoring you? Oh man, I hope not, because you’re kinda turning into a full blown stalker with how much you’ve been calling her lately.” He laughed and punched Kara’s shoulder playfully.

_ “Message Recorded.”  _

Kara sighed and hung up the phone as Winn gave her a sheepish grin. “Thanks for that, dude.”

She sat behind the desk and considered her predicament. She had thought that things weren’t going anywhere with Lena, that they were basically coworkers who sometimes kissed for a cover, and that that was all they would ever be. But then, Lena had kissed her-- _ really _ kissed her--and now she wasn’t sure of anything. The kiss had occupied Kara’s thoughts every waking moment since it had happened. It had been desperate and sensual and filled with more longing and yearning than she even knew either of them had possessed, and the obsession was only made worse by the fact that now Lena seemed to be ignoring her, and had been for nearly a full week. __

She knew she needed to let it go, needed to stop calling. Knew that Lena was clearly not going to discuss this with her, at least not now. But she was a woman possessed. Her lips still burned, days later, from the warmth of Lena’s kiss. The butterflies that filled her stomach when the agent was near had erupted into full blown eagles, beating their wings ferociously against her heart. So no, there would be no ‘letting it go’. She needed answers from the agent, and she would get them.

Her internal brooding was interrupted by Winn, Nia, and Brainy discussing Black Friday shoppers loudly next to her. Thanksgiving was tomorrow and that meant turkey and family, but it also meant only one more day until the Nerd Herd was overrun with sweaty men desperate for deals on electronics.

“All I’m saying is you guys gotta move faster this year than you did last year, or we’re gonna have a full blown potsticker situation on our hands,” Winn was saying to the group.

“What’s a potsticker situation?” Nia asked.

“Never say that word!” Winn commanded.

“But you just--”

“It’s a black swan,” Kara interjected. “It’s an impossible situation that changes everything.”

“Exactly! In the event of a nuclear strike, earthquake, etc. Any one of you can trigger a full Nerd Herd evacuation by uttering  _ one _ word.” Winn looked like this was the most dire news he had ever delivered.

“Potsticker,” Kara supplied.

“The word that cannot be spoken,” Winn huffed in annoyance.

“I really just want to say potsticker now,” Nia said with a smirk. "Potsticker!"

"Potsticker," Kara replied with a grin.

"Potsticker!"

"Potsticker!"

“Potstickers are fun, my dad used to throw them at me,” Brainy could just barely be heard saying over the chorus of Nia and Kara saying ‘potsticker’ over and over again.

“Guys!” Winn shouted. “Seriously? This is incredibly important! If you keep saying it, it’ll lose all of its meaning!” He hopped off the desk. “Now let’s talk crowd control…”

“Ugh, I am so not in the mood for this,” Kara grumbled.

“Hey, cheer up, your day just got a lot better,” he replied with a grin.

“Oh yeah? How’s that?”

He pointed toward the entrance where Lena was walking through the door. She looked amazing, as usual. Jeans and a black button up top, sleeves pulled down around her fingers. She looked soft, her black hair falling in a straight curtain around her pale face.

“Turn on your heart light, girl! Let it glow!” Winn whispered in her ear.

She walked slowly over to Lena, until they met in the middle of the store. “Hi.”

Lena said nothing, simply grabbed her hand and pulled her down an aisle away from prying eyes.

“I don’t--I don’t wanna play General Haley here, but if you don’t start answering my calls, super secret spy resource Kara Danvers does kinda go to waste.” She laughed nervously.

Lena didn’t laugh. She looked impassive. “Did you flash on something?”

Kara’s face fell. So it was back to professionalism, then. “No...no I was calling about other s-stuff. You didn’t happen to listen to my messages, did you?”

Lena brushed off the question. “Kara, we have to talk--”

“No, wait. Can I say something first?”

“No. Kara we--”

“It’s the kiss, right?” She laughed anxiously. “It is. It’s gotta be the kiss. First of all, I know that the moment was very life or death-ish, and normally I would run from a situation like that, as would I think, most people. You, on the other hand, you--um--well, you kissed me...which was just…” She trailed off as she thought back to the moment again. She glanced up to see Lena staring at her intently, face revealing nothing. She cleared her throat.  _ Let it go, she’s not interested. _ “B-but the thing is, the thing that I’d like to talk to you about is that I would like to invite you to Thanksgiving dinner.” She tried to give her a charming smile. “So? Would you like to come?”

Lena said nothing for a moment. Then-- 

“Kara...James is alive.”

***

Kara stared through the two-way mirror in the observation room at the lifeless form of her old college buddy. He sat on what looked like a dentist chair, arms strapped down, chin on his chest. 

“Lena, you told me James was dead. I read his obituary. We went to his funeral. How is this possible?”

Lena didn’t look at her. “We don’t know Kara, he won’t talk to our people.”

Kara glanced over at her. “Not even you?”

“He hasn’t seen either of us,” Henshaw chimed in. 

“Why not?”

Lena finally turned to her. “Because he asked for you.”

“We want to know what happened,” Hank added. “We think he’ll talk to you.”

Kara stood stunned. James had asked for her? Why? Why wouldn’t he ask for Lena? Did she even want to talk to him? Was it even  _ safe _ to talk to him? At that thought, she snapped back into the moment.

“Whoa whoa, wait a minute. You want me to go in there and ask him what exactly? Just so we’re on the same page! ‘Hey James, why did you send me the Intersect? Why did you choose my life to ruin?’ How exactly do I start that conversation?!”

Lena gave her a look that could maybe be considered sympathetic, if you squinted. “Just talk to him, Kara. Okay? Be a friend. You’re good at that.”

Kara swallowed and nodded, and headed toward the door that led into James’ room. Hank moved to stand next to her as she peered through the window in the door. 

“Remember, he’s a CIA-trained rogue assassin. Be careful.”

She closed her eyes in annoyance. As if she wasn’t already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “Thanks for that, Hank.”

She made her way into the room, and the door closed behind her. James didn’t look up at her. She walked slowly over toward him.

“Who are you?”

James’ deep baritone came floating softly toward her. She hadn’t heard that voice in years.

“Hey, James...buddy. It’s me. it’s Kara.”

James lifted his head up at that declaration. “I don’t believe you.” He turned toward the glass and shouted, “What did you do with the real Kara?!”

Kara turned and walked quickly toward the glass. “I’d like to come out now.”

There was no answer. The door did not open.  _ Fantastic. _

She turned back toward James. “Alright, well...unless we’re in the Twilight Zone right now and there really is another Kara, and I’m her clone, the answer to your question is: Yes I am Kara.”

“Prove it.” He looked at her suspiciously.  _ “iv rrip ehwor Kryptahniuo?” (Do you speak Kryptonian?) _

Kara felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her. “Come on, man. They’re watching us right now.” She reeeally didn’t want Lena knowing she learned a language from a comic book.

James just glared at her. “Do it.”

She sighed and took a step closer, lowering her voice, and giving him a look of exasperation.  _ “Zhi. Ghi non khap.” (Yes, it is me.) _

James smiled, “Your Kryptonian is a bit rusty, Kara.”

“Yeah, well I’ve been a little bit busy lately. Ever since I got your  _ email. _ ” She threw him a pointed look.

“Did you open it?” She nodded. “Your computer?”

“Destroyed.”

“So you’re the only one?” He asked hopefully.

“I don’t get it James, why did you do it? Why did you send me the Intersect? Then, why did you destroy it? And lastly, how the hell are you still alive?”

He regarded her for a minute with interest. “It’s complicated.”

“Ok, well who saved you?”

He leaned in and whispered, “ _ They _ did.”

She gave him an exasperated look. “Did  _ they _ ? Could you be any more cryptic with your pronouns? Can I get a name, a place, a  _ something? _ ” 

James stared at her for a moment. Then, he jerked his head, indicating for her to come closer. Kara took a tentative step forward. She still wasn’t sure they could trust him, and she didn’t know how stable he was. James indicated for her to move closer. She stepped closer and bent her head down to listen to him. He whispered into her ear, “I’m sorry, Kara.”

He snapped the wrist restraint off the chair, grabbing her tie with the hand still bound, and holding her in place while he used his free hand to grab a syringe gun off the tray next to him. Clearly, he’d been working on his bindings since he arrived. “Untie me!” He shouted at Kara.

“Okay! Okay!” She undid his other wrist restraint and felt him push her in front of himself, syringe held to her neck, as they stood waiting for the door to open. It did a split second later, Lena barrelling through it, gun drawn. 

“James, no!”

Kara felt James tense behind her. “Lena? What are you doing here?”

Lena said nothing, but kept her gun trained on him. Hank entered the room behind her, gun levelled at James’ head. 

“Hello Hank,” James sneered. “Care to try again?” 

Kara felt the blood drain from her face. Try again? Had Hank been the one to kill James the first time? She didn’t have much time to dwell on that fact because the next moment James was prodding her forward, pushing their way through the door, his body crouched behind her like she was a shield. They backed out of the room and down the hallway, Hank and Lena following them out. Lena shouted for James to stand down. Out of the corner of her eye, Kara could see Henshaw’s laser scope dancing across both of their foreheads, trying to get a clear shot.

“Don’t do this, James! We’re all on the same side here!” Lena tried to appeal to him.

“Oh yeah? What side is that?” he asked, backing them towards the elevator.

Hank chimed in, “I’ve got a shot.”

“No you don’t!” Kara shouted, terrified.

“You’ll be fine,” Henshaw waved her off.

“No no no no! No shooting, please! I’m susceptible to bullets!” 

James pulled her into the elevator behind them and saw the lift required an access code. “The access code!” Both agents remained silent. “I’ll kill her, Lena!”

Kara looked at Lena, trying to decipher her facial expression, but her features betrayed nothing. “Between you and me,” she said, breathing heavily, her voice cracking, “I think he means it.”

Lena paused. “51602.”

James entered in the code on the keypad and the doors began to close.

“Lena!!” Kara shouted, before they were cut off.

As soon as the doors closed, James laughed and pushed her away from himself. “You knew I wouldn’t do it, right?”

Kara turned to him and gritted her teeth. “No! No, I did not know that! How would I know that, James? What are you trying to do?”

James was no longer looking at her. He was looking around the lift, clearly looking for a means of escape.

“What’s Lena doing here?” He finally turned back to her.

“She’s protecting me, okay? And so is Henshaw, we’re the good guys! Look, you need to stop this before someone--namely me--gets hurt!”

As she spoke the lift began to slow, well before the ground floor. James looked at the access panel in confusion. “It’s too soon...we’re slowing down.”

The bell dinged, indicating the elevator was coming to a halt and Kara sighed. “You know, you don’t have to do the whole,” she mimed the syringe to her neck, “thing.” But James was already grabbing her and pulling her back into shield position as the doors slid open.

“You stop this elevator again and I’ll--” He stopped short when he saw the man standing on the other side of the doors.

“James,” the man greeted. “Who’s your friend?”

Kara gave the man a hard look, and immediately she flashed on him. Lots of images passed through her mind but the one thing that stood out was a Top Secret file with the name ‘Leviathan’ printed across it.

“Edge,” James growled, “you step back!”

“Okay,” the man known as Edge replied flatly, “I wouldn’t want you to kill some random person. I’d feel just terrible.”

“Tell your people that I’m gone,” James instructed.

“This is your chance, James. This is me being reasonable.” He took a step forward. “Let’s go, let’s be friends again!”

“We were never friends.”

“Ouch,” Edge replied in a monotone, “now my feelings are hurt.” He smiled and gave the both of them a once over. “You’re gonna run, aren’t you?”

Kara felt James nod at her back.

Edge’s grin grew wider. “Good.”

The doors slid closed again.

James relaxed his hold on Kara and let her move away from him. Kara turned to face him. “Who was that? And what’s Leviathan?”

James stared at her in shock. “Where did you hear that name?”

She pointed to her head. “The Intersect. I have these flashes.”

He stepped towards her, grinning. “I was right! You remember its intel. Is it always that fast?”

Kara ignored him. “What is Leviathan?”

James turned away from her looking around the lift again. 

“Who are they? And why do they know you?”

He hit the alarm button on the access panel and the lift came to a juddering halt. “This is my stop.”

“No no wait! I have questions, I have millions of questions!”

He turned back to Kara with an apologetic look on his face. “This might sting a little.” And he stuck the needle into her neck, pushing the plunger down. He looked directly into her eyes then. “Tell Lena...it’s hard to say goodbye.” Then everything went dark.

Kara came to with Lena kneeling over her, her dark hair falling in a curtain on one side of her face. In her drug induced haze, Kara had the bright idea to reach out and touch Lena’s face, to run her fingers along that magnificent jawline. Unfortunately because she was so out of it, she missed Lena’s face entirely and merely pawed at Lena’s shoulder before her arm fell limply to the ground beside her.

***

They walked through the courtyard together in silence, until they reached the fountain far enough away from her front door that Alex and Kelly would not overhear them.

“It wasn’t a full dose, so the drugs should be out of your system by the morning,” Lena reassured her.

“Cool. So what’s the plan now? Are you guys gonna go after James?”

“No. James is probably halfway around the world by now. It’s someone else’s job to find him.”

“Lena, this is James Olsen we’re talking about here. Your old flame, my old nemesis. We have to do something!”

Lena gave her a hard look. “We each have our own assignment.”

“Right. And I’m yours, so what does this mean for us?”

“Nothing,” Lena stated coolly, “you’re protected.”

“No,” Kara reiterated, “I mean,  _ for us. _ Our fake relationship. I mean, you and James were…” she gesticulated with her hands, hoping Lena would chime in with something to save her from having to spell it all out, but Lena just stood there staring at her, expressionless. “You’re really not making this easy.”

Alex came out of the apartment with the garbage just then, and they both greeted her as if nothing was wrong. 

“Hey Lena! It’s good to see you!” Alex said, a wide grin on her face. “Are you coming to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?”

Lena looked back at Kara and smiled. “Of course.”

Kara smiled back and hoped it looked legit. She was anxious about James being back in the picture, about what that could mean for whatever their thing under the professional spy thing was. She bid Lena a goodnight and went inside to try to sleep, her dreams plagued by James and Lena and whoever Leviathan was.

***

The next day Kara was too busy helping Alex and Kelly with Thanksgiving shopping and prep to give too much thought to James, Lena, or Leviathan. As much as Kara loved her sister, Alex became something akin to Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen on holidays. Inevitably, the food would be delicious, but they’d all have to endure some abuse along the way. 

It was nearly dinner time when Alex realised Kelly had forgotten to pick up cranberry sauce and marshmallows for the sweet potato casserole. Kara immediately volunteered to go pick them up to avoid her sister’s nervous breakdown that was undoubtedly on the way. Somehow, Kelly had managed to disappear to somewhere in the apartment, along with an entire bottle of wine. Kara briefly wondered if perhaps Kelly had been trained in evasive maneuvers by the CIA, as well.

By the time she returned with the required groceries, having had to return to the store two separate times before making it home from the  _ first _ run because Alex had discovered more missing ingredients ( _ thanks, Kelly _ ), most of the food was coming out of the oven. 

“Kara! Get ready for some turkey!” Kelly called from the dining room, clearly already buzzed from her escape-wine from earlier. 

Kara walked through the living room and spotted Hank, standing in a very nice suit, holding a cosmopolitan. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, your sister invited me,” he replied. Then, in a softer tone: “Thanks.”

“Did you get everything?!” Alex’s voice came loudly from the kitchen.

“Yeah! Yes, Alex I got everything, don’t worry!” She handed off the paper bag of groceries to her sister, who disappeared back into the kitchen. She turned back to Hank. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something. Um...what do you think James meant when he said, ‘Hello Henshaw, care to try again?’”

Hank gave her a small smirk, but said nothing.

She continued nervously, “‘Cause, call me crazy, but I got the weirdest feeling like it was you who killed him the first time.”

Hank’s smirk only grew. “Good guess.”

Kara’s eyes widened in shock. “Are you serio--does Lena know about that?”

He shrugged. “It’s in my report.”

She gaped at him. “Why would you do that? Why would you kill James?”

He furrowed his brow in confusion. “Orders. Your old nemesis is a very dangerous human being, Kara. You get a chance to shoot James Olsen, you shoot to kill.”

Kara felt a chill settle over her. So James had ruined her life, Lena had been in love with James, Hank had shot James, and now he was back in all of their lives. How the hell was everyone so calm about this?

“Guys! No shop talk tonight!” Kelly’s voice rang out from the dining room. She was carrying the turkey to the table. “We’ve got a bird to eat! Hank, come help me stuff this monster!”

Hank handed off his cosmo to her and joined Kelly at the table. Alex walked up to her then, removing her “kiss the cook” apron. “He’s so sweet,” she said with a grin.

“Like honey,” Kara replied with a strained smile.

The doorbell rang and Kara jogged to the door, opening it to find Lena holding a bouquet of flowers, and Winn holding a bag of candy corn. She rolled her eyes affectionately. “Come on in, guys!”

Lena walked in and immediately found Alex, greeting her with a kiss on the cheek. “These are for you, for hosting.”

“Aw thanks, they’re beautiful!” She took the flowers and gave Lena a hug, directing her to the dining room. “Kelly’s just in there.”

They gathered around the dining room table and began to dish out all the delicious dishes, lavishing praise on Alex’s cooking, while Kara and Kelly drank copious amounts of wine and pretended that they hadn’t been subjected to her militant abuse all day. It was their tradition.

“I am in  _ heaven, _ ” Kelly exclaimed, after her first plate of food. 

Lena agreed vehemently, and Kara couldn’t help but note the wide smile on the agent’s face. She hoped it was genuine. 

“Do you usually do Thanksgiving?” Kara asked, curiously.

“Um, well, not recently,” Lena replied, casting her eyes down to her plate. 

The moment was glossed over as Winn went to dish out the sweet potato casserole and realised Alex had forgotten the marshmallow topping. It was as if the world stopped turning for a moment. Winn looked like someone had kicked his puppy, and Alex looked like she may at any moment, pull out a gun and shoot the offending dish. Kara tried to smooth the moment over.

“Wait, that’s my fault. I think the marshmallows must have fallen out of the bag in the Herder. I’ll go grab them and then we can just stick it under the broiler!”

She ran out to the car and retrieved the puffy topping from where they had fallen and was making her way back through the courtyard, when a dark figure stood in her path. She stopped short as the figure emerged from the shadows: James.

“Hello, Kara.”

She tensed. “Lena and Hank are right inside. One girlish scream from me and they go into combat mode!”

He laughed, “Relax.” He took a step toward her. “Is this your place?”

“Alex and I live here, yeah.”

He screwed his face up, confused. “You live with your sister?” His tone was full of judgment and it made Kara’s blood boil. “What happened, Kara?” He tilted his head in pity. “What happened to you? The chick who wanted to be the software billionaire...Bill Gates, but with style?”

Kara snapped, “You got me kicked out of NCU, James--”

He cut her off. “I need to talk to Lena. Can you bring her to me? Without Hank.”

She looked at him in disbelief. “Why would I help  _ you _ ?”

“Because of Leviathan. That guy in the elevator? He works for them. And they want the Intersect, Kara. They want  _ you _ .”

Kara’s blood ran cold. “Okay, I’ll get Lena. Go to that window,” she pointed to her bedroom window. “It’s unlocked. I’ll send Lena in in a minute.” She turned on her heel and headed back inside, handing off the marshmallows to Alex.

She sat down at the table and stared at her plate, thinking over what she’d just learned. A foot tapped hers under the table. She looked up and Lena was giving her a concerned look. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah...yeah, everything’s…” she trailed off.

She waited until Kelly engaged Hank in a conversation about some odd sport that she was interested in--white water rafting or something equally dangerous--before gaining Lena’s attention.

_ “James Olsen is in my bedroom,” _ she mouthed quietly. Lena’s eyes widened and she excused herself from the table.

***

Lena opened the door to Kara’s room gently and flicked on the light. It was empty. She stepped into the illuminated area, towards the open window, when she heard the door snap shut and a light thump from behind her. She turned quickly to see James. He must have been braced above the door to surprise her. 

“You’re getting rusty.” 

“James, I have a gun, do I need to use it?”

“Easy Lena. I’m unarmed. And I am so sorry.”

She took a step back from him. “Why shouldn’t I arrest you right now?”

“Because I’m not a rogue spy,” he said, taking a step toward her. “Because the Intersect was a mission.” He stepped closer, his large frame towering over her, filling her senses. “Because, Lena, you’re still in love with me.”

He stepped forward and pulled her into a deep kiss. His hands gripped her cheeks and threaded through her hair. Her body lit up at the touch, but she noted, however briefly, that it wasn’t the same as it used to be. After a moment, she pulled out of the kiss gently.

***

Kelly and Hank had been discussing water sports for a few minutes when Kelly asked Kara if she still had some rafting brochures she’d given her a couple weeks back. “Are they in your room? I’ll just go grab them,” she said, rising from her chair.

Kara felt panic set in. “No! No, please, I’ll get them. You guys just keep talking sports.”

She set off down the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible. She reached her door and opened it a crack, peeking into see if they were still talking. They weren’t. To her disgust, she found Lena and James wrapped up in each other, lips pressed together. She pulled the door closed again and headed back to the dining room. The jealousy bubbling up in her chest.

When she reached the table, the rest of her family was going around the table, saying what they were all thankful for. 

“I am thankful that I am here with the most beautiful woman in the world, Alex Danvers,” Kelly said with a loving smile.

“I am thankful for my family, and for all of our new friends,” Alex continued.

The circle continued to Hank.

“Uh...pass,” he muttered.

“Kara?” Kelly asked, expectantly.

Kara sat with her arms folded across her chest, crinkle in her brow, frown on her lips.

“I’m thankful that James Olsen is dead and is not currently in my bedroom making out with my new girlfriend,” she said in a monotone, swiveling her head toward Hank, pointedly.

He coughed before standing quickly and excusing himself from the table.

“Wow, buddy. That was...dark,” Winn replied.

“And specific,” Kelly added, puzzled.

She sat for a few moments, thinking smugly about Hank busting in and breaking up their tryst, before the realisation that Hank would likely kill James set in. 

She stood up quickly. “Okay, I might have made a mistake!” She ran down the hall.

***

“Well, you’ve still got it,” Lena said harshly, pulling away from James.

“This isn’t a play, Lena. I need your help.”

The door to the bedroom flew open and Henshaw stepped in, gun drawn.

Lena looked at James, “Please don’t run.” She turned back to Hank. “Hank, everything is under control.” He stepped past her to the open window just as James jumped out of it.

Kara dashed into the room, just as Hank was turning back and holstering his gun. “Nice job, CIA,” he said sarcastically.

She closed the door behind her. “Hank! No guns at Thanksgiving!”

They climbed out of the window and Hank and Lena began searching the courtyard for James.

“He’s gone,” said Hank. “Call it in from my place. I’ll check the back.”

Lena and Kara started toward his place. “How did Henshaw find out?” Lena demanded.

“I made a rash decision,” she said apologetically.

Lena stopped and turned to her. “You saw James kiss me, didn’t you?”

Kara just looked at her, wondering if the guilt she felt inside was visible on her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a light click on in Henshaw’s apartment. She narrowed her eyes. “Lena, why is someone in Hank’s apartment?”

Lena pulled her gun out of her thigh holster under her dress and crept to the door. They entered the apartment to find James at Hank’s computer, clearly searching for something. A floorboard creaked under Kara’s foot and James whirled around gun in hand.

“Put it down!” Lena shouted.

James ignored her. “Close the door, Kara.”

She did as she was told.

James turned his attention back to Lena. “I need you to listen to me, Lena.”

“Just put it down, James--”

“The Intersect was a mission. I was recruited by an outfit called Leviathan. Special access group, inside the CIA.”

“You’re lying,” Lena exclaimed. “We would know that!”

“They knew who I was! My activation codes, my record! They ordered me to shed my agency contacts and go deep. Only then did I realise it was an internal strike. They wanted me to download and destroy the Intersect. Leviathan had plans for its intel.”

“How can I trust you, James?” Lena asked, quietly.

He stared at her for a moment. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Lena.” He lowered his weapon, and looked her in the eyes. “I didn’t know who I could trust.”

Lena kept her gun level. “Why Kara?”

“Yeah, why Kara?” Kara chimed in.

“I needed somebody who wasn’t a spy, who wouldn’t know anything about Leviathan, or the Intersect, or Sandwall.”

At the mention of the last item, Kara flashed. A file labelled:  **_Top Secret: Operation Sandwall_ ** passed through her mind.

“Sandwall...Sandwall, that was the name of the mission.” She turned to Lena. “Lena, I think he’s telling the truth.”

“What, did you flash?”

She nodded quickly. “Yeah.”

James nodded. “I’m not rogue.”

Lena lowered her gun. “Okay, then let’s talk about--”

The door to the apartment opened and Hank came in. Upon seeing Olsen, he pulled out his pistol.

“Hank, no!” Kara and Lena shouted at the same time.

Too late. Henshaw pulled the trigger and the force of the shot blew James off his feet.

Kara saw Lena tense and her eyes go wide. The agent dropped to her knees and ripped open James' shirt, ready to stem the blood flow. But there wasn’t any. He was wearing a vest. He coughed and lifted his head.

Hank stepped over him. “Time to finish the job.” He raised his gun.

“Hank, no! Kara flashed, James isn’t rogue!”

James coughed again. “You should aim for the head next time, Henshaw.”

Hank pulled him to his feet by the vest and sat him on a chair. James stripped off the vest and pulled his shirt back over his body.

Kara walked over to him and picked up the kevlar that he’d tossed to the floor. She stared at it for a moment. “I don’t get it, James. How are you still alive?”

“I don’t know how they did it,” he responded. “Probably used one of the European clinics. I don’t remember it.”

“But you know why they did it?” Lena asked.

He nodded.

“Well, should I pop some popcorn, or do I need to beat the answer out of you?” Hank asked snidely.

“No thanks. I’ll talk.” James responded, hate in his eyes.

“Darn it,” Hank sneered. 

“You know the first part already. I downloaded the Intersect intel and blew up the computer. Raced out of the DNI, then I ran into you, Hank.” He turned to Hank and shot him a dirty look. “So I’m on the ground. No white light, just Henshaw staring down at me. And then I woke up in a mobile crash unit. They brought me back, but they weren’t trying to save me. No, this was a Leviathan team. They wanted something.”

He turned to Kara. “You remember that guy, Edge?”

She nodded.

“Well he was standing over me, asking me where the Intersect files were. Told me to tell him or he’d let me die right there. So, I told him I saw them. That the intel was inside my head. I knew he’d make sure that I didn’t die.”

The four of them sat in silence for a moment. Then Kara spoke, “Leviathan thinks  _ you’re _ the Intersect?”

He nodded. “They brought me back to take it out of me. That’s why I need your help.”

“You expect us to help  _ you _ ?” Hank asked incredulously.

“I need to turn myself into the CIA, but Leviathan has operatives in every agency. I need to know that I’m being handed over to the  _ real _ CIA.”

“I can do that!” Kara exclaimed. “I can do that. I can--I can be there at the transfer, and if I flash on whoever they send, then we know they’re Leviathan, but if not--you’re on your way home!”

Lena nodded. “That should work. Smart, Kara.”

“Alright, but we still need a place for the transfer to go down. Public place, lots of people.”

Kara smiled. “I might know a place.”

They spent the next few hours making their contacts and planning the handoff. It wasn’t until nearly midnight that Kara finally got a second alone with James.

“Look, I gotta know, James. Why’d you do it? Why’d you get me kicked out of NCU?”

James sighed. “You remember Professor Lord? He taught that class on Encoded Images?”

She nodded.

“He was a recruiter for the CIA. I found out that he’d put you on the recruitment track, that the Agency wanted you for some military operation they were working on.”

Kara was puzzled. “Why me?”

“You had the top test results in the entire year, Kara. Remember the final on Encoded Images in Intelligence? Keywords in your essay responses correlated to 98% of the subliminal images in the test. He was required to send all the top test results to the Agency.”

He shifted in his chair before continuing. 

“You’re a good person, Kara. You had too much heart for this kind of work. You were no operative. If they would have put you in the field, you wouldn’t have survived.”

He sighed, and looked Kara in the eyes. “I asked him not to submit your file, but he told me the Agency wouldn’t let go of a recruit as promising as you, that with the amount of information you could retain, you were in no matter what, whether you wanted to join up or not.”

“So I told him you cheated, that you’d copied all the answers. I told him whatever he needed to hear to tell the CIA that you were no longer a viable candidate.” He paused. “I know it sounds harsh, but I framed you to save you.”

Kara sat silently for a moment, turning over this new information. 

“Why couldn’t you have just told me that?”

“I couldn’t. They’d already recruited me at that point. I could have been arrested for treason.”

She sat in silence, heart pounding. Finally, after all these years, she’d gotten answers, but they weren’t what she expected. She stood up. 

“Thank you for telling me. I gotta go.”

She climbed back in through her bedroom window and fell into bed, but sleep evaded her for hours. All this time she’d thought James was her nemesis, when really he’d tried to help her. But in trying to prevent her from ruining her life, he’d ruined it in a different way. She didn’t know how to feel about it or him. She sighed. Better to focus on the mission at hand, than dwell on the demons of the past. And with that thought, sleep finally found her.

***

The next morning found Kara sitting at the Nerd Herd desk, double fisting cups of coffee as Winn walked through the crowd of employees, shouting instructions, advice, and words of inspiration through a megaphone.

“We are all that stands in the way of anarchy!” he was shouting. “On this day, it comes down to you! For every day that you were lazy, here is where you make up for it! Once those animals come through that door, you have but one mission: Get them out as quickly as possible! That means keeping the registers functioning, Brainy!” 

He walked over to the man and stood in front of him. “The registers  _ must  _ stay up! Otherwise people won’t be able to check out. And if people can’t check out, then they can’t leave, and if they can’t leave then more people will pile in, and if more people pile in--”

“ _ The store will explode!!!”  _ Brainy shouted, eyes wide with fear.

Kara chuckled. They did this every year. And yet, somehow, every year the registers inevitably crashed and Brainy would run and hide with Nia to avoid being around the hordes of greedy consumers. How any of them still had jobs, she wasn’t really sure. If it were any other year, she’d be playing a game on her phone right now, having memorised Winn’s annual tirade. But it wasn’t any other year, it was this year. And this year, there was a lot more at stake than just Black Friday shoppers.

The Nerd Herders took their places and the doors opened, a rush of early morning shoppers flooding through the entrance. Kara directed customers as best she could, while keeping an eye out for Lena and James. 

After about two hours, her earpiece crackled to life and Lena’s soft lilt filtered through the madness.

“We’re entering the store.” Kara turned to the entrance and saw her walk through the doors, casually running her fingers through her hair as she spoke into the comms in her watch. “The CIA pickup should be here in two minutes.”

She saw James enter in behind her and walk over to a display and pretend to look at something. Everything seemed to be going according to plan until she noticed Winn walk over to James, do a doubletake, and then circle back around to the man. He stopped in front of the agent and stared. 

James gave him a puzzled look. “Do I know you?”

Winn’s eyes widened. “Wow...no sorry dude, it’s just that you look exactly like this guy my best friend used to go to college with. Did you go to NCU?”

James gave a charming smile. “Oh, no. Sorry, but I went to Duke. But I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Winn grimaced. “Well, you shouldn’t, actually, because this guy James was a real douche. He got my buddy kicked out of the university, stole her girl, ruined her life. I don’t know why he did it to the literal nicest person in the world…”

James cast his eyes down.

“Anywho! Happy Holidays!” Winn walked away, smiling brightly, none the wiser.

Kara watched the entire encounter with a mix of interest and fear. She’d forgotten that Winn knew James so well, even if they’d never met. Luckily, Winn was a tiny bit of an idiot, and James was able to play it off. She couldn’t deny herself the satisfaction she got from James hearing his misdeeds against her again. She still had mixed feelings about the whole thing, and she knew his intentions were good, but the road to hell and all that.

Lena’s voice came through her earpiece again. “The CIA pickup is here. Kara, do your pass.”

Kara stiffened and then walked, rigidly, toward the agents in suits entering the store. She stared at them hard as they passed, but nothing happened. No flash, no images, not even a sneeze. They were clean. She raised her wrist watch to her mouth. “Hey, nothing happened, no flashes, so the CIA guys are legit!” She let out a deep breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding.

She circled the store over to where James was standing next to their displays of HD monitors. “Excuse me, sir. Can I help you?”

“Yes, thank you,” he replied. “These HD screens almost look like the real thing, huh?” He motioned to the ocean documentary that was playing across them.

“Yeah they do.” They stood silently for a moment.

“You know, I didn’t mean to offend you last night,” he said finally. “About you living with your sister?” He looked her in the eyes. “Lena told me about your team, what you’ve done together…”

“Yeah, well, you’re still the one who’s a superspy, right?” Kara joked.

“That’s nothing,” he said quietly. “I’ve got one friend in this world. You’ve got a home and a store full of them.”

Kara smiled. “So what happens now? You just disappear and start all over again?”

He shrugged. “It’s what I’m good at.” He held out a hand to shake. “Thank you, Kara. For everything.”

Kara hesitated for a moment. She still had mixed feelings. She looked up into his face, saw the earnestness etched across his features. Maybe it was time to let the past go. She took his hand and gave it a firm shake.

“You’re welcome.”

Lena appeared at her elbow. “I’m taking him in, Kara. You stay here.”

_ Right. Stay in the store, Kara, _ she thought to herself, wryly. And she realised in that moment that while he was still on this earth, she’d never compare to James Olsen, superspy. Best to let Lena go now, before she got any deeper.

***

Trees and buildings whipped past them as they rode through the city. Lena stared out the window, and tried not to think about James, about saying goodbye again, or Kara and the kiss she’d been trying to ignore. 

“So are we good?” James’ voice floated over from the passenger side of the backseat next to her.

She knew what he meant, but she still feigned misunderstanding and looked out the back window. “Yeah, we’re clear. I don’t think we’re being followed.”

He huffed out a small laugh at her transparent attempt. “No, us.”

She looked out the window for a moment before replying. “I thought you were dead, James.”

He looked at her, eyes imploring. “Come back with me.”

She shook her head in exasperation. “I have my assignment.”

He looked away and smiled mirthlessly. “You were never good at this.” He looked over at her again. “The saying your feelings part.”

“Well...I don’t like to talk much.” 

They stared into each others eyes for a moment, the tension filling their senses. Just as James leaned in for one last kiss, Lena had a split second view of a car coming full speed at their vehicle, before a resounding crash filled their ears and the sedan was suddenly pushed over onto its side.

She came to as large hands pulled her out of the vehicle and laid her on the asphalt next to James. She blinked her eyes slowly, and glanced over at James who was just beginning to stir. She heard a voice speaking into a phone and prodded at James to wake up. He opened his eyes and immediately began trying to move.

“It’s done. Yeah, we’ll need a few minutes to groom the area.”

They skirted around the back of the sedan as the agent on the phone ended the call. He turned to see them missing and when he turned back, Lena landed a well-executed roundhouse kick to his face. He fell backwards into James who snapped his neck. Another agent came running around the side of the second vehicle and James threw a punch to his face, breaking his nose and sending him to the ground. Lena knelt down and retrieved their firearms from their holsters.

“Where is he? Where’s their boss, Edge?” James asked, panting heavily.

Lena paused as she stood back up. Her eyes widened. 

_ “Kara.” _

They raced over to the SUV and she jumped into the driver’s seat, stomping on the gas and racing back into the city.

***

Kara directed a customer over to tablet cases and then returned to the Nerd Herd desk, where a man was standing, hands splayed out on the counter top. He lifted his head as she approached. 

“Excuse me, can I get some service?”

Kara took in his face. It was Edge. The Leviathan agent. She felt her face go pale. Edge smiled. 

“You’re Kara Danvers, aren’t you? We met the other day.”

She stiffened. “Did we?” She cleared her throat. “S-so, so how can I help you?”

“I’m looking for a computer, you might be familiar with this one. It was called  _ The Intersect _ ?” He looked at her pointedly.

She froze. “I--I don’t...I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t seem to understand the situation, Kara.” He looked around at the store, teeming with customers. “You think that all these witnesses will guarantee that nothing is gonna happen to you? You couldn’t be more wrong,” he growled menacingly.

“Um...I--I am just so, so slammed right now, uh, because of the holiday. So, I should probably get back to work now.” She turned to leave.

“My team reacquired James Olsen and Lena Luthor five minutes ago. I have several trained killers stationed throughout the store.” He nodded his head to his left. “If you look over there, you can also see that my men have neutralised Mr. Henshaw.”

Kara whipped her head in the direction he indicated and saw two men in suits with guns pressed into Hank’s back.

“See, here’s the thing, Kara. Nothing stops me from fulfilling my orders. Innocents, civilians...if you make me, I’ll execute every last person in this building.”

Kara glanced around the store, at the innocent shoppers, at Winn, Nia, and Brainy. She turned back to Edge and nodded, swallowing hard. She fidgeted with her glasses as she walked out from behind the counter and toward the front door, Edge following close behind with a pistol at her back.

Brainy came running up to her in a panic. “Kara! The registers are down and I can’t get them back up! What should I do?”

Edge leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Say more than one word and I’ll kill him right here.”

Kara turned back to Brainy, mind swirling with what to say to alert Brainy, without giving it away to Edge. Then it hit her--

“Potsticker.”

Brainy’s eyes shot open wide and he ran over to Winn, who was with a customer. “Potsticker!”

“Dude, stop saying that. If you keep joking with it, it loses its meaning!”

“No it’s not me, I didn’t say it! Kara did!” 

Winn paled and then immediately grabbed the megaphone from behind the Nerd Herd desk. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an emergency! I need everyone to leave the store in an orderly manner.” He turned to Nia, who was closest to the door. “Nia?  _ Potsticker! _ ” 

Nia gave a thumbs up and ran over to the door, pulling the fire alarm.

Patrons came flooding into the main aisle in front of the entrance, blocking off Edge and Kara’s exit. In all the fuss, Kara managed to slip away from the agent and hid behind a display case. She peeked over the top of it just in time to watch Henshaw use the evacuation as a distraction and take out the two agents holding him. He knocked the guns from their hands with one swift kick, before landing two solid punches, rendering them unconcious.

Henshaw came running around the display and picked her up in a fireman’s carry, sprinting into the Home Theater room. He threw her onto the couch and pulled out his phone.

“Code Black! Hostiles in the Nerd Herd. I need a containment team, right away!”

He reached under the coffee table and ripped out a false bottom, producing two pistols with silencers.

“Are you kidding me? Some kid could’ve found that!” Kara exclaimed incredulously.

Hank ignored her question. “Get down, Danvers. This is when the shooting starts!”

Kara tried to ignore the borderline gleeful look on his face at those words, and adhered to his advice, dropping down onto the floor in front of the couch. No sooner had she done that, then the first shot rang out, exploding one of the glass panels of the Home Theater room. 

“Oh god! Oh god!” She shouted, as Hank began to return fire. She shoved her fingers in her ears and closed her eyes, trying to drown out the sound of silenced gunfire and the sight of shattered glass and bullets flying.

At that moment, Lena and James came bursting onto the sales floor from the backroom, guns drawn. When they saw the siege playing out in front of them, they turned and nodded to each other, stowing their weapons. They crept along the edge of the room, taking out members of the Edge’s team, one by one, nearly invisible.

As they got closer to the middle of the fray, James leapt up onto the Nerd Herd counter, drawing their attention, as Lena began to fire. One, two, three, four baddies dropped before a single shot could be aimed at James. He hopped down off the counter and began to move with her in perfect sync, trading blows with the Leviathan agents, snapping necks, landing kicks, two perfect partners in the dance of battle.

Kara peeked up over the top of the couch when she noticed the shooting had died down, and took in the sight of their synchronicity. She looked on in awe as they singlehandedly took down the last of the agents.

“Wow...they really are great together,” she murmured to herself.

“Come on, Kara. Time to go!” Henshaw grabbed the back of her collar and pulled her to her feet. He was leading her out of the theater room, when Edge appeared behind him and brought the butt of his pistol down on his head, rendering him unconscious. 

Edge grabbed her and walked her through the store to the main aisle where James and Lena were, pistol trained on the back of her head.

She heard Lena pant out, “Where’s Kara?”

“Over here,” Edge snarked.

James and Lena both raised their pistols.

“Let her go, now!” Lena commanded.

Edge huffed in annoyance. “Does this look like my first time?”

“Isn’t it someone else’s turn to be the human shield?” Kara whimpered.

James took a step forward.

“Stay there, Olsen!”

James glanced over at Kara. “You alright, Kara?”

“Does it look like I’m alright?” She asked through gritted teeth.

“I need to ask you something.”

“Shoot,” she glanced back at Edge, “Not you, please!”

She turned back to James, who was staring at her intently.

_ “Nahn rrip ghozh a thron?” _

She looked at him in shock. “What?!”

_ “Zhi? Oh-zha? _

Kara steeled herself.  _ “...zhi!” _

James gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry, Kara.” He turned the gun on her and pulled the trigger.

Kara fell to the ground. Lena stared down at her body in shock, eyes wide in horror. The hand holding the pistol fell limply to her side. 

Hank came around the corner and knocked Edge out with the butt of his pistol, returning the favour.

Lena regained her senses and rushed over to Kara. She looked up at James. “What did you say to her?”

James shrugged. “Ask her.”

Lena knelt down beside Kara and called her name. She ripped the blonde’s shirt open...she was wearing a vest. She sighed in relief. She patted Kara’s cheek in an attempt to bring her around. “Kara, come on wake up!”

The blonde coughed violently. She groaned at the pain in her chest. She felt as though someone had swung a sledgehammer directly over her heart. The force of it had knocked all the wind out of her. She caught her breath. 

_ “Zhi...Zhi _ ..it means ‘yes’. Yes, I am wearing a vest.” She smiled and laughed loudly, the adrenaline kicking in. The laughter made her cough hard again. “God, that stings a little bit.”

The two agents helped her to her feet, while Henshaw coordinated with the NSA containment team that had just shown up, disguised as firefighters.

“Seriously, that is not fair,” she panted out, as Lena stripped her of her button up and Kevlar. “Not fair to not tell someone how much a bulletproof vest still hurts!”

James walked over to stand beside her, as she stood there wincing. Lena stood in front of the two, and Kara saw her different coloured eyes dart back and forth between them before she walked away briskly. She sighed and looked around the blown apart store, before turning back to Hank, who had returned to send James to the home theater room to give his report.

“What are we gonna do about this place?”

Hank smirked. “Relax, Kara. These are NSA cleaners. They’ll have the Nerd Herd back together in a jiffy.”

“What am I gonna say when management asks me why I gave the order to evacuate?”

Hank shrugged. “Gas leak. You should be proud, you saved a lot of lives,” he said sardonically.

Kara laughed lightly and shifted her gaze over to the theater room. “What’s happening with James in there?”

Lena appeared at her side. “He’s in there giving his report to General Haley.”

About 30 minutes later, James emerged holding a briefcase and wearing a tuxedo. He strutted over to the trio with a grin on his face. 

“It would appear I have a new assignment.”

Kara looked him up and down. “As what? A maitre’d?”

“Actually, it’s a consulate dinner. They want me to go after Leviathan. On my own, off the radar.”

Hank moaned. “Ohh, that sounds like heaven.”

“It means James Olsen is dead. And he’s going to stay that way this time.” He turned to Kara. “Goodbye, Kara.”

“This is so weird,” she said. “Where are you gonna go? Who are you gonna be?”

“Sorry Kara, not even you can know that.” He turned to Lena. “Lena...we’ll always have Dublin.” He nodded to Hank and walked out of the store.

Kara’s forehead crinkled at his words. What happened in Dublin? She looked over at Lena for any clues, but her face was a mask of an enigma. She watched James walk through the doors and out of her life forever.

***

She knocked three times and stepped back as Hank pulled open the door, holding a bonsai tree.

“Hey!” She greeted brightly.

“What?” He huffed in annoyance.

“Um, we have some turkey leftovers...actually we have A LOT of leftovers, so I was wondering if I could interest you in some sandwiches?”

“Thanks, but I’ve got work to do.” He lifted the bonsai tree, as if that explained everything.

“Right.” She tried to find the courage to ask what she really came over for. Hank started to close the door. “Wait!”

“What?”

She sighed. “What did James mean by ‘Dublin’? Outside of it being some weird  _ Casablanca _ reference, I mean.”

He shrugged. “Probably a code. A contact point of some sort.”

Her brow furrowed. “Okay, but why would Lena need that?”

“James is going deep, Kara. No calls home, no messages out. If she wants to join up with him, she has to do it now.”

She gaped at him. “...Lena’s leaving?”

Henshaw smirked. “Well, don’t worry, Danvers. When Lena’s gone, we’ll get ya a new girl.” He shut the door in her face.

She walked slowly back to her apartment. Lena was leaving. She was going on the run with James.  _ Of course she is, _ she thought to herself,  _ none of this was real. _ She traced her fingers over her lips and pulled out her cell phone, dropping down onto her bed. She dialed Lena’s number and put it to her ear.

***

Across town, a bag lay open on the bed, fully packed. A pistol, a cell phone, a passport, and a coat the only things left out. Lena stood at the window of her hotel room and stared out. James would be calling soon, telling her where to meet. 

Anxiety pricked in her chest, as she waited for the call. Was she doing the right thing? Did she still want to be with James? She knew she loved him still, but was it like before? Was it enough? And what about Kara? 

She stopped herself there. She refused to think about the blonde. She couldn’t. If she thought about Kara, she’d remember the mission, she’d remember what was at stake. Worse, she’d remember blue eyes and soft lips, broad shoulders and gentle hands pulling her closer…

The phone rang. 

She snapped her head up at the sound and moved across the room. As she reached for the receiver, her cell phone began to vibrate on the bed. She picked it up and looked at the incoming call display:  _ Kara. _

She looked back at the landline, back to the phone in her hand, back to the landline, over to the packed bag on her bed.

_ Kara or James, Lena. Make a decision. _

The phones continued to ring.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're all still enjoying this! Be sure to drop a comment with what you liked or disliked.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara comes to terms with Lena's decision. Someone from Lena's past returns, raising questions about Lena's identity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this an early update just in time for International Lesbian Day??? Why yes it is!
> 
> This is my longest chapter yet so, as always, hope it ain't shit!!

Kara stood at the front window of the Nerd Herd, staring pensively over to the Wienerlicious. Lena’s Jaguar was not in her usual parking space, and hadn’t been for several days. Kara had not seen nor heard from the agent since James had shipped out, and she tried not to think about what that might mean.

“Didn’t know you had taken up bird watching,” Hank sneered from behind her.

“Just...breathing in the view,” she responded, trying to sound nonchalant.

Hank snickered. “Yeah...hell of a view of the parking lot.”

She turned to glare at him. 

“I also couldn’t help but notice that Agent Luthor’s car isn’t in her usual spot,” he continued, pointedly. 

Kara stiffened, then tried to resume her air of casual nonchalance. “Oh really? I hadn’t noticed that...at all.” She glanced up at Hank, who grunted out a capricious laugh.

“Fine, maybe I did notice,” she caved. “So...have you talked to Lena lately?”

“Agent Luthor and I don’t do a lot of fraternising off hours. Guess we’ll just have to see…”

“See? S-see what?” Kara stammered out.

“See if she’s had enough of the good life here with you, or see if she’s hightailed it to wherever your buddy James is hiding himself.” 

Kara crossed her arms over her chest, brow furrowed. “Is--Is that an option?”

Hank chuckled. “Don’t worry, I hear there’s a great selection of new handlers in this year’s CIA Christmas catalogue. Now come on, we’ve got a briefing to get to.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the store, Kara trailing behind him.

***

They stood in Hank’s apartment as General Haley and Director Marsdin began the briefing on the final stages of the new Intersect’s development. Lena was still absent, Kara noted with sadness.

“...beta version of the new Intersect computer was successful. The new Intersect should be fully functional within the next week or so. We’re simply waiting for the developer to finish the final piece, the Cypher, before the new Intersect is fully operational,” Marsdin was saying. “But perhaps we should wait to brief you until Agent Luthor arrives.”

“Yes,” General Haley chimed in, “where is Agent Luthor?”

Hank cleared his throat. “Uh, ma’am, it appears that Agent Luthor is currently--”

“Agent Luthor is currently suffering from--from a…spastic colon. Which can act up from time to time,” she cut in, before Henshaw could advise the directors that Lena had abandoned her post.

“Agent Luthor has no history of that,” Marsdin replied, brow furrowed in confusion.

“Perhaps we should reschedule for when Agent Luthor is feeling better,” General Haley suggested, as Hank’s apartment door opened and closed behind them.

“I’m fine,” Lena said, walking over to the monitor to stand next to Kara. She didn’t look at the blonde. “I’m sorry I’m late, carry on.”

As General Haley and Director Marsdin advised them about the construction of the new Intersect, Kara stared over at Lena, who was pointedly not looking at her, the blonde’s shoulders sagging in relief. _She didn’t leave. She didn’t run off with James._ Kara’s heart pounded. What did this mean? Did she not love James anymore? Did she stay for Kara? Was it just her being a good agent?

As soon as the briefing wrapped up, Lena hurried out of Hank’s apartment, Kara hot on her heels.

“Hey! Hey, Lena, wait!” She caught up to her out in the courtyard. She watched the agent’s shoulders tense up visibly, before turning to face her.

“What’s up?” Her face was impassive, free of emotion. Kara swallowed and stepped toward her, fidgeting with her glasses.

“Uh...n-nothing. Nothing really, you know just...really good to see you.” She paused before gazing down into Lena’s guarded eyes. “I thought you’d be halfway to James by now.”

Lena’s brow arched. “Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know...he offers a pretty exciting life, I guess. Sipping mai-tais in Morocco or--or assassinating Afghani warlords, or--or whatever it is you kids do for fun.” She laughed lightly, trying to break the tension.

Lena wasn’t having it. Her face was stone cold and her tone was icy. “I’m here because I have a job to do.” 

Kara winced at her words and took a step back, face falling. Every time she felt like she was getting somewhere with Lena, they seemed to take two steps backward. Something was always in the way--Lena, herself, if nothing else. Her frigid tone and uncaring demeanor cut Kara in a way she wasn’t aware she could be, straight through the heart.

She gathered herself and cleared her throat. “Right. Of course...the job.” She took another step back and smoothed her tie. “I’d..I’d better get going, I have to clock in soon.”

Lena watched how her words cut through the blonde in real time. _Nice job, asshole. It’s not her fault._ She softened her features, and grabbed Kara’s wrist. “I’m sorry, Kara.” She didn’t look the girl in the eyes, she couldn’t. She didn’t want to see the hurt there, knowing she caused it. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

The blonde gave her a half-smile. “It’s okay. I get it. It’s been a weird week.”

She smiled back softly, “Well, how about I make it up to you? Buy you lunch?”

Kara brightened visibly. “Sure!” She turned to leave. “Oh, and Lena...I’m really glad you stayed.” Her face was so open and earnest that it took the agent by surprise. She merely smiled in return before leaving.

***

Lena stood at the Nerd Herd desk in front of Kara, waiting for her break to start. They were discussing potential dinner plans with Alex and Kelly when Lena caught the eye of a dark haired woman from across the store. Something about her made Lena’s arm hairs stand on end, and she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that she’d seen the woman before. The woman stared back in interest and began making her way toward the pair. 

She pulled Kara out from behind the Nerd Herd desk and around the front, keeping the woman in her sights, as Kara rambled on about the pros and cons of Thai food vs. Chinese. She pulled the blonde over to Hank. 

“Bogie at your six,” she murmured to the agent. 

He turned casually and clocked the woman, still following them through the store. 

“Roger that,” he replied. “Secure the asset immediately. Take her to the wiener hut.”

She nodded curtly, before pulling Kara out of the store and over to the Wienerlicious. Walking to the deep freezer, she moved the thermometer panel out of the way to reveal a keypad, which opened up a hatch in the floor of the walk-in. She shoved Kara down the steps of the hatch, before following her in. 

“What is this place?” Kara asked, looking around in amazement.

“It’s a panic room, server room, and base for Operation Intersect all in one,” she said, indicating to a wall of computer servers behind Kara.

Kara spun around and took in the technology in front of her. She gasped and walked slowly over to it. 

“Oh wow….I can’t believe I’m this close to an actual DU97.” She ran her hands along the cases housing the servers, her voice getting higher and breathier as she spoke. “Freon-cooled, reconfigurable 30 teraflop architecture with modules for cryptanalysis and video processing... _she’s so beautiful._ ”

Lena looked on in amusement. _God, she is such a nerd._ She couldn’t help but smile at the blonde, who seemed to be trying to hug the wall of computers.

Kara brought herself back to the present. “Wait. What’s going on? Why did you bring me here?”

“I couldn’t shake a suspicious tail, so until we establish the depth of the threat, you’re staying put. Don’t move, touch _nothing_ , and wait for me. Got it?”

Kara nodded vigorously. Lena turned on her heel and headed back to the front of the restaurant, just as the suspicious woman entered the store. Lena reached into the waistband of her pants and fingered the knife tucked there, ready for action. 

As soon as Lena left, Kara ran over to the computer and pulled up the surveillance cameras to watch the events unfold.

The woman walked with purpose up to the counter. “I know you,” she stated firmly. “And I never forget a face.”

Lena smiled. “I don’t think we’ve ever met. I guess I just have one of those familiar faces.”

“That’s not it,” the woman replied, eyes narrowed. “I _know_ you.”

“I tried my hand at acting for a while, I was on a national television commercial, maybe you saw it? I ate a messy cheeseburger.”

“It’ll come to me.” The woman furrowed her brow and then suddenly her eyes widened. “I know _exactly_ who you are.”

Lena slipped the knife out of her waistband and held it low, under the counter.

_“We went to high school together!!!”_ The woman exclaimed.

Lena paled. “What?”

“Wait wait, don’t tell me your name! I’ll get it...I never forget a face.” She looked Lena up and down. “You look _so_ different now...well, for the better, I mean.”

Lena smiled brightly. “I’m sure you must have me confused with someo--”

“ _Tess!!”_ The woman shouted. “That’s it! Tess Mercer!” 

Lena felt light headed. This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not now.

The woman smiled widely, “It’s me! Nora Darhk! Well, Nora Palmer now. I married Ray Palmer. Metropolitan High, GO SCORPIONS!!”

Lena tried to return the woman’s enthusiasm as she flashed back to her memories of high school. Yes, she remembered Nora Darhk. The epitome of the mean girl. Beautiful, wealthy, a cheerleader, looked down her nose at everyone. Made Lena’s life a living hell…

“Of course, Nora...how have you been?” 

The doorbell chimed as a man she recognised as Ray Palmer walked in the door. 

“Oh my God, Ray! Look who it is! It’s Tess Mercer!” Nora cried, grabbing Ray’s arms and pulling him up to the counter.

“Who?” He asked, puzzled.

“ _Tess Mercer_ , from high school. You know... _the one._ ” She gave him a meaningful look.

Recognition dawned on his face. “Oh...yeah...hi Tess. You heading down for the reunion this weekend?”

“Oh no, I’m not much of a reunion person--” She was interrupted by the door to the backroom opening. Kara stepped behind the counter with her, eating an ice cream sandwich she'd stolen from the freezer.

Lena stared at her in shock. _“I told you to stay put,”_ she whispered angrily.

“I know, I know, it’s just...the tummy is a-rumbling.”

“Kara,” she growled.

“Yes, honey?”

“Is this your girlfriend?” Nora asked excitedly.

“Wait, you know these nice people, sweetie?” Kara asked with a smile. This was her chance to find out more about Lena, and she didn’t intend to squander it, no matter how angrily Lena was glaring at her.

“I’m Nora, we all went to high school together,” Nora explained.

“No way! Of all the Bavarian-themed hotdog joints in all the towns, in all the world, you walked into _hers_?!” She gaped in faux-incredulousness.

“I know! It’s crazy, right?” Nora smiled brightly. “We live in Westlake now, because it’s closer to Ray’s work, but we go down there all the time.”

_Where was ‘down there’?_ Kara thought. “Do ya? You go--go _down there_ ? Weather’s real nice this time of year, huh, _down there?_ ”

“Would you like to take that _to go, Kara?!_ ” Lena asked, sharply, her eyes boring into Kara’s.

“The weather’s always nice in San Diego!” Ray was saying.

Kara snapped her fingers and pointed at him gleefully. “Yes it is!! That’s what I always say! The weather is _always_ great _down_ _there_ in San Diego, where _Tess_ is from!” She glanced at Lena briefly, who was looking at her like she might want to drown her in the deep fryer, before turning back to the guests.

“I’m Kara, by the way. But around here, people just know me as Tess’ girlfriend.” She wrapped an arm around Lena’s shoulders and pulled her close, the agent stiff under her grasp.

“Kara, I’m Ray Palmer,” he said, reaching out a hand to shake. As Kara grasped it, she flashed on the man. She squeezed her eyes closed as she released his hand.

“Ahhhh, brain freeze. I think I had a little too much ice cream.” She looked over at Lena, pointedly. She could see in her face that the agent knew what had happened. She cleared her throat. “Hey, what are you guys doing for dinner tonight? You got any plans? Because maybe we could all get together and reminisce about old times!”

Lena looked at her incredulously.

“Sounds great!” Ray exclaimed.

“I mean, any friends of Tess’ are friends of mine,” Kara said lightly.

“Oh...I don’t know, Kara. It might be pretty boring for you to take a trip down memory lane with us,” Lena said, her teeth just barely not gritted. 

She knew she was pressing her luck, but Kara wasn’t going to give in that easily. “Good God, _no!_ I can’t think of anything I’d rather do more than spend an evening learning all about... _my Tess._ ”

Lena looked positively murderous as Nora, Ray, and Kara all settled on the final details of dinner. As soon as the guests had left, Lena put the closed sign up and called Henshaw, gathering the trio into the base under the restaurant.

“What the hell were you thinking, Kara?” Lena shouted at the blonde. This couldn’t be happening. She was not about to go to dinner with Nora Fucking Darhk and Ray Fucking Palmer. This was too much, it was too close to home, to her _real_ identity. Kara was way out of line here.

“What was I supposed to do? I flashed on the guy!”

“Those people are from my past, a past you have no business poking around in!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m just trying to do my job. I thought you’d be happy that I used a little initiative.”

Hank settled down at the table in front of the monitor with them. “Yeah, don’t kill the messenger. It’s not her fault you went to high school with a treasonous scumbag.”

Kara raised her arms in a _See?_ gesture, but Lena merely glared. The monitor blipped to life, showing General Haley’s face.

“Alright, first matter of business,” she began, “Ray Palmer. He’s an engineer at Northrop Grumman Aeronautics. Has clearance to extremely sensitive plans for future weapons technology. Picture the next generation of F-22 Raptors. Essentially, a superbomber.”

Hank moaned quietly. Kara raised an eyebrow at him.

“This technology has been leaked. Kara’s instincts were good. Your mission is to go to dinner with the Palmers and see if Kara flashes on anything.”

Lena spoke up, “General, I apologise, but I’m afraid I must recuse myself from this mission. My cover has been compromised.”

“Agent Luthor, you have a pre-existing social history with the target. It seems to me like you have the perfect cover.”

“But it’s _not_ a cover. It’s _me,_ ” Lena insisted.

“Well...I hope _you_ like Italian food,” the General retorted before signing off.

Lena could feel Kara staring at her out of the corner of her eye. _Un-fucking-believable._ She was going to have to sit across from Nora Darhk’s smug face and listen to Kara try to pull stories of _her real life_ out of these people. She knew Kara meant well, that she only wanted to get to know the real her, but it didn’t help. High school had been one of the worst parts of her life. She wasn’t in a hurry to revisit it.

***

Lena opened her door that evening to find Kara in a pair of fitted chinos and patterned button up shirt under a blazer, hair hanging loosely. She looked handsome, and if Lena hadn’t been so anxious about the night ahead, she might have said so. As it was, she merely opened the door without a word and let Kara into her hotel room.

“You’re early,” she said, as she returned to the bathroom to finish getting ready.

“Technically, I’m right on time for my pre-mission debriefing,” Kara said with a smirk.

“What are you talking about?”

“Standard spy protocol! I need some stats for my cover tonight!”

She sighed. “Kara…”

Kara cut her off. “No need to apologise if you didn’t have time to put together a full dossier! I think we’ll just go over a few facts together, if that’s okay!” She pulled a small notepad and pencil out of her jacket and flipped it open, looking at Lena expectantly.

Lena said nothing, just continued applying her lipstick.

“Okie doke! I’ll go first. Tonight I’ll be playing the role of Tess’ girlfriend, Kara. She works at the Nerd Herd, not living up to her potential. Sister is Alex, doctor, engaged to Kelly, therapist. There! All up to speed on Tess’ girlfriend.” She flipped to a new page of the notepad. “Your turn!”

Lena turned and glared at her. “I’m not doing this.”

Kara took a deep breath. “Okay! Here’s what we know thus far: Tess Mercer went to Metropolitan High School in San Diego, California, Class of 2010, Home of the Scorpions!”

Lena strode over to Kara and set her jaw, tone full of ice. _“Back off, Kara._ You have as much information as is pertinent to this assignment!”

Kara looked up into her furious face, wondering how far she should push. “...so do you spell Mercer with a ‘c’ or an ‘s’?”

Lena snatched the pencil out of her hand, putting her face an inch away from Kara’s and dropping her voice dangerously low. “All Tess’ girlfriend needs to know is Tess hates questions about her past!” She turned and threw the pencil across the room. Kara watched it bury itself into the frame of a photo of the two of them that sat next to the goldfish Kara had won her, the tip puncturing where Kara’s head used to be. Lena turned back to her, “You got that?!”

Kara looked at the pencil in shock. “...I’m good.”

Lena walked back into the bathroom, fuming. This was going to be a long night.

***

They were seated at their table looking over the wine list. Nora kept stealing amused glances over at Lena and it was wearing on her nerves.

“So, Ray,” Kara began, “what line of work are you in?”

“Engineering. Actually what I’m working on is Top Secret--”

“And let’s keep it that way, because no one gives a shit,” Nora interjected, rudely. “So, how long have you guys been together?”

“Years--” Lena started.

“Months--” Kara said, then caught herself, “--that add up to years,” she added anxiously. She glanced over and saw Ray was sweating and kept glancing back and forth between his watch and the restaurant, as if looking for someone. Nora followed her gaze.

“What’s the matter with you,” she asked her husband, “you’re sweating like a pig, it’s kinda gross.”

“No! Oh--sorry. I’m fine, I’m fine,” he rambled nervously. “Would you excuse me for a moment?” He hurried off to the bathroom.

“So, Tess,” Nora began, a smug smile on her face, “Is your job at the wiener shop like a career? Or are you just keeping yourself in Top Ramen between acting gigs?”

“Oh,” Lena laughed nervously, “I’ve--I’ve got a few things going on.”

“I mean, Kara, if you had told me in high school that _Tess Mercer_ wanted to grow up to be a movie star, I would have said ‘dream, little duckling, dream’. But now here we are.”

Kara watched as Lena cut into one of the dinner rolls as if it had personally offended her. Clearly, this Nora person was not someone Lena remembered fondly. She glanced over at the woman and watched her take a sip of her wine, grinning smugly at Lena over the top of it.

“So Tess, when’s the last time you were down in San Diego?”

Lena tried to smile, “Mmm, it’s been a while.”

“Don’t get to visit your brother much?” 

Kara snapped her head up as Lena choked on her bite of bread. She flagged down the waiter, who turned out to be Hank. As he poured Lena a fresh glass of wine, she turned to Nora. 

“So, you know when you’re kids, and there’s always that fun house where all the kids hang out? Would you say that was the case with Tess’ house/condo/apartment?”

Nora didn’t even get the chance to answer before Lena purposefully dumped her entire fresh glass of wine onto Kara’s lap, causing the blonde to exclaim from the cold dampness on her thighs. 

“Oh no! Oh God, I’m so sorry. God, I’m such a spaz,” Lena said with a fake laugh.

“Now there’s the Tess we know,” Nora said with a sneer.

Kara excused herself to the restroom. As she walked in, she heard voices, one speaking with a Russian accent. 

“...give us the plans now!” 

Then a voice she recognised as Ray’s spoke up. “I need to know if I give you the plans, that no harm will come to my wife.”

Kara looked up at the two men accosting Ray and immediately flashed. They were members of the Russian mob. “Oh my god.”

“Who the hell are you? Who is she? Is this setup?” One of the men asked.

“No! God, she’s nobody!” Ray exclaimed.

“That’s a little hurtful,” Kara murmured.

“She’s just the girlfriend of some chick I went to high school with,” he shouted as one of the mobsters shoved him into one of the stalls. The second thug pulled out a gun and aimed it at Kara.

“You know what? I’m just going to get some club soda for my stain,” Kara said anxiously, backing toward the door, but didn’t get far before one of the thugs grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall.

“What do you know?”

“I swear, I don’t know anything, I just came to use the bathroom and get rid of this stain!”

The thug turned to his comrade. “Turn on hand dryer. So no one hear her scream.”

The thug complied, and as the hand dryer started running, Henshaw burst through the door and took out the thug that had Kara in a chokehold. He threw the other to the ground before landing several heavy blows to his head. The first thug regained his bearings and made to stand, but Hank brought the man’s head down onto his knee, forcing him to fall back into Kara’s arms. Hank rushed over and whispered that he was going to get the van to stow the bodies, before rushing out, leaving Kara holding a Russian mobster in her arms.

Ray pushed the stall door open lightly, peering out with wide eyes and catching sight of the mobster on the floor and the one in Kara’s arms.

“How? ...How did you do that?”

“Uhhh…” Kara threw the mobster down on the ground. _Ray thought she had taken out the thugs?_ She preened a little at the thought. “You know...just a self-defense thing I took down at the YMCA. It was pretty comprehensive.” 

Ray gaped at her in shock. “Are you nuts?! These guys are killers!”

She shrugged. “In my experience, bullies are like bears, you know? They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.” She paused. “Or is it bees…? Yeah, it’s bees. Anyway, when you’re dealing with the Russian mob--”

“How did you know they’re connected to the mob?” Ray asked, puzzled. “Wait a minute. I know exactly who you are! Dude...you’re The Man!”

Kara frowned. “Um...I don’t--”

“Who do you work for? FBI? CIA? NSA?”

Kara paused. “You know, I can’t...discuss the particulars…”

Ray nodded vigorously. “Okay, yeah. Yeah I get it. But just tell me: does Tess know who you really are?”

“Tess knows nothing,” Kara said quickly. 

“Okay, well...thank you so much for saving my life! Can’t you just tell me your name? Agent…?”

Kara smirked. It couldn’t hurt to pretend a little. “Dawson. _Special_ Agent Kara Dawson.”

Hank returned a few moments later to collect the bodies, and the pair returned to the table to find Lena and Nora sitting in uncomfortable silence.

***

“So, Nora, how do you stay in such great shape?” She was trying to be amiable. Trying desperately not to completely lose her shit. Hank stood next to her trying and failing to filet their fish.

“Got obsessed with karate because my instructor is such a hottie. I’m a black belt now.” She put her head on her fists. “I clued in that you didn’t want to talk about your brother’s situation in front of your girlfriend. Does Kara not know?”

Lena paused, breathing deeply. She noticed Hank had paused too. She glared up at him. This wasn’t any of his business either. “Do you mind if I take over that?” She indicated to the knife in his hand.

“Oh, not at all. Sorry, it’s my first day,” he said with a sheepish chuckle at Nora.

She stood and took the knife from him, whispering, “Go check on Kara.”

“If you promise not to filet her before I get back,” he muttered back.

“I can’t promise anything,” she said with a manic smile, flipping the knife around in her hand as he walked away. She caught Nora staring at the knife passing through her fingers before she slid the blade through the fish like a scalpel.

“I took a knife skills course at the culinary academy,” she said in explanation.

“Is that to further your hotdog career or are you angling for something bigger? Say...the carving station at Golden Corral?” Nora sneered.

Lena laughed darkly as she seared the fish head off the body in one sweep, before stabbing the knife into the filet station. Nora didn’t say much after that.

As Lena carved the fish, she pondered how she had come to be in this situation. What were the odds that Nora would walk into _that_ Nerd Herd, that she just so happened to be married to Ray, who had leaked plans for the new fleet of superbombers? Was it all just a coincidence, or was Nora just as dark as her name suggested? She took a deep breath and tried to center herself.

Kara and Ray returned a few minutes later, Kara carrying herself a little taller than usual, and Ray staring at Kara like she was some sort of superhero.

The rest of dinner passed without much fuss, mostly Kara and Ray discussing software engineering, while Nora stole wary glances at Lena. This was perfectly fine with her. The more afraid Nora was of her, the better she felt. She even managed to joke about one or two memories of high school with Ray, his experience having been nearly as miserable as her own. 

By the end of the evening, she felt marginally better. They were waiting for the check when Nora seemed to get her confidence back. 

“So, any chance you’ll reconsider going to the reunion?”

Lena smiled politely, “Not at all.”

Nora sneered. “A shame. Could have used the trip to see your brother. I bet he gets lonely in that cell.”

Lena stood abruptly and excused herself to the restroom to avoid jamming her steak knife in Nora’s throat. She dabbed the back of her neck with a wet paper towel and did some deep breathing exercises. The night was over. She could get through this. She pulled Hank aside on the way back from the bathroom and made a plan to grab Ray to interrogate him the next day.

***

Henshaw yanked the bag off of Ray’s head. They’d brought him down to the secret base under the Wienerlicious for questioning. Since Ray seemed to be glued to Kara for the rest of the previous night, Hank had decided to have her in the room while they questioned him, as a friendly face. 

“Look Palmer, this is not a negotiation. Here’s how this is gonna go down: you want into WitSec, you’re gonna have to give us something. Those two goons from last night? If they don’t report back to their boss, he’s gonna want a follow up meet.”

Hank turned and gestured to Kara and back to himself. “We’re going to be there to cover that drop. Have you been contacted yet?”

Ray hesitated, “I’m sorry but...I’d prefer to deal _only_ with Special Agent Dawson. The woman saved my life last night!”

Hank turned to Kara with a look of amused incredulity. Kara opened her mouth to speak, but found she had no words to even begin to explain the situation. 

Hank grunted in amusement. “Is that right, _Special Agent_ Dawson?”

Kara laughed and gripped her cup of coffee nervously, glancing back at Ray who gave her a big smile. She looked back to Hank who was clearly enjoying this.

“Uhhh...it’s funny…” She took a deep breath and decided to roll with it. “You know, you should really see me scale buildings with suction cups because I’m like--” she made suctioned popping noises with her mouth. “I only dabble in the violence, so…”

“Modesty doesn’t suit you, _Mad Dog_ ,” said Hank. Kara stared at him in confusion. He gave her a wink. _Roll with it._

“M-Mad Dog? Why--Why do they call her that?”

Kara glanced at Hank who gave her a smirk. _Okay, you got this. Be crazy._ She widened her eyes and bared her teeth, gripping her styrofoam coffee cup. She stared at Ray as she raised the cup and smashed it in her hand, hot liquid running down her arm. Then she threw it to the ground. Ray looked terrified.

Hank rushed over to Ray in apparent fear. “Listen, I gotta know where your next meet is, okay? And I’ll ask you real politely, but my partner here is a _maniac_ ,” he whispered the last word for effect. Ray glanced up at Kara who was staring at the pair, wide eyed and rabid-looking.

“That’s fine if you’re under her protection,” Hank continued in a low voice, “but you don’t want to be on the receiving end of Mad Dog. Look at this--” he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing a long jagged scar, “--you know how I got this? I parked in her parking space _one time_.”

Ray was looking positively terrified at this point. He nodded quickly. 

“This scar reminds me _every day_ , don’t mess with Mad Dog. Now, I’m gonna ask you one more time: where’s the meeting going to be?”

“Look, I don’t know, okay? He texts me, that’s it, that’s all I know!”

Hank sighed and gave Ray a pitying look. He turned back to Kara. “He’s all yours, Mad Dog.”

Kara freaked out for a moment as she stepped toward Ray. _What exactly was she supposed to do?_ She didn’t know any enhanced interrogation techniques, and she certainly didn’t have the stomach for them, even if she did know any. 

Her thoughts were cut off by Ray’s cellphone chiming. 

“No, no! Wait--Wait a minute! This is him!” Ray exclaimed. He pulled out his phone and read the text message. “Okay, he wants to meet tonight, b-but that doesn’t work for me. I can’t meet tonight. Tonight’s my reunion, and my wife has really been looking forward to this. She wants to be reunion queen. I can’t disappoint her!”

“Stop talking!” Hank yelled. “You’ll meet him there.”

Ray paled. “I--I don’t know about this.”

Kara crossed her arms over her chest and lowered her voice in what she hoped was a menacing manner. “No one’s gonna mess with you, man. I got your back.”

Ray looked up at her hopefully. “Okay. Okay, I’ll do it!”

Hank and Kara exchanged a look of amazement.

***

Lena threw punch after punch at her punching bag in her room, heavy metal music blasting over her bluetooth speaker. Memories of high school came flooding back to her. _Nora, whispering about her to her friends, throwing open the shower curtain on her after gym class, spreading rumours about her brother…_

She punched and kicked as sweat ran down her neck and pooled in her sports bra. _Ben Lockwood beating on Ray Palmer, shoving him into a locker, sexually harassing her. “Hey Tess, must be getting pretty lonely with your brother locked up. Call me if you ever need a man around the house,” he’d said with a predatory grin, pinning her against the lockers._

A knock on her door pulled her out of her memory-induced rage. She threw it open, breathing heavily, to find Kara with a gift box in her hands.

“What do you want?”

“Brought you a present,” Kara sang with a smile.

She turned and walked back into the suite. “Well it’s not my birthday.”

“Ooh! One down, 364 and a quarter possibilities to go,” said Kara, sarcastically. She handed the gift box to Lena. “Just open it.”

Lena gave her a small smile and put the box on the bed, pulling on the ribbons. She opened the lid to find a pretty green dress inside. “What do I need a new dress for?”

She watched as Kara stiffened. “I know you’re going to see this as a bad thing, but I think it’s a real opportunity--”

“Spill it!”

“We have to go to your reunion…”

Lena closed her eyes and walked back over to the punching bag, blood boiling. Of course. Of course she wasn’t going to get out of this. 

“Look, I know you don’t like talking about your past, much less revisiting it, but the reunion is where the drop is going down,” Kara said, a thread of anxiety in her voice.

Lena sighed and leaned her head against the bag. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s just...high school--it was a tough time for me, okay?”

Kara stood up and walked over to her, her voice comforting. “Tell me about it, I get that! Trying to figure out who you are and what you’re gonna do with the rest of your life, while constantly being distracted by raging hormones?”

Lena threw a half-hearted punch at the bag and leaned her head back, but avoided the blonde’s eyes. “It was more than that for me.” 

Kara reached out and laid a hand on her bicep, running thumb across the sweaty skin there. “Hey, you’ll be okay, Lena. Trust me.” She smiled at Lena, so charming, so sweet. “Besides, everyone remembers high school way worse than it actually was!”

***

Lena walked through the gym doors to her old high school and tried to tamp down the anxiety running through her body. Kara hooked her arm with hers and she was suddenly overcome with gratitude at the blonde’s presence. Kara could be very reassuring, she noted, and it made all of this just a little bit easier to deal with.

“You look great,” Kara said, giving her an easy smile.

She tried to give one in return, but she could tell from the concern in Kara’s eyes that it had appeared as more of a grimace. There was no time to fix it though, as they arrived at the table to retrieve their name tags.

“Welcome, fellow Scorpions! Go class of 2010!!!” The girl at the welcome desk was overly bubbly. It made Lena want to put her stiletto in her throat.

“Hi,” she said flatly, “Tess Mercer.”

The woman searched the table for the right tag, and when she handed it to Lena, did a double take at the woman’s beauty. 

“Oh my god. _You’re_ Tess Mercer?” 

Lena shrugged, slapping the tag to her dress. “I am if it says I am.”

She took Kara’s arm and led her away, ignoring the fervent whisperings coming from the table they had just left. She hated this night. She had faced warlords, murderous dictators, fellow spies, assassins, defused bombs, faced death countless times, and yet none of those things made her lose an ounce of sleep. But this? Revisiting the site of so many traumas...she couldn’t shake the unease and anxiety that had been present since the second she saw Nora.

Kara stopped her in the entryway, surrounded by senior photos of her fellow classmates. She felt Kara’s strong, soft hands brace her shoulders and she looked up into her ocean blue eyes, softly shining behind her black framed glasses. This was all her fault, yet she couldn’t find it in her to be mad at the blonde. If she had to face this place and these people, she was happy to be doing it with her. Kara had a way of making her feel comfortable in the most uncomfortable of situations. 

“Hey,” Kara said softly, “don’t worry about tonight, okay? No one’s going to mess with you. I got your back.”

Lena gave her a soft half-smile. _She really was so sweet._ She stared up into Kara’s warm smile, but then watched as her eyes darted to the right and widened, her mouth dropping open, letting out a shocked gasp.

_"Oh wow."_

Lena snapped her head to her left and followed her gaze. Her eyes landed on her senior picture. _Fuck._ Of course. As if this night couldn’t get worse. She stared into her pale teenaged face, surrounded by an untamed mane of hair and a mouth full of braces. She closed her eyes and turned away, avoiding Kara’s eyes.

Kara turned back to her and tried to give her a reassuring smile. “It’s not that bad!”

She gave her a thin-lipped smile and walked toward the alcohol. Mission or not, she was going to need it.

They made their way through the crowd, Kara giving a curt nod to a nervous Ray as they passed him. Lena pushed past the crowds of her peers but nearly stopped when she came face to face with Ben Lockwood. His jaw dropped as he saw her and she had the overwhelming desire to curl in on herself as he looked her up and down with a hungry look on his face.

But then Kara’s hand was on her lower back, guiding her to the punch bowl.

“Hey, remember! The best part about the reunion is this time when you get drunk in the gym, you don’t get suspended,” she joked, trying to ease Lena’s tension. It worked a little bit. She felt a small smile creep over her face, until she spotted Nora across the room. The woman gave her a small wave, then immediately turned to her group of friends and began to whisper excitedly. _Same old Nora_ , she thought dryly.

They moved toward a table and set their drinks down. Kara smiled at her brightly. “Wanna dance? Fortunately for you, I was at the height of my game in 2010. A little bit of this--” She did a quick crank that soulja boy move. Lena couldn’t help but laugh at her antics.

Kara laughed with her but stopped when she saw Lena’s face darken. “What? What’s wrong?”

A voice to her left made her jump.

Ben Lockwood strode up to the table, eyebrow arched, hungry gleam in his eye. “So, my buddies and I scoped out the room for the best looking girl here. I decided to come introduce myself to the woman I’ll be waking up with tomorrow.” He looked her up and down again. “Ben Lockwood.”

Lena was overcome with the simultaneous desire to snap his neck and run away. Before she could do either, Kara stepped between the two and held out her hand. 

“And I’m Kara, Tess’ _girlfriend_ , so…”

He shook Kara’s hand but stared at Lena with interest. “Tess...wait, _Tess Mercer?_ Damn. Ten years has been _very_ sweet to you.”

She glared up at him. “Thank you.”

“Ten years is a hell of a long time. Especially to someone living in an 8 x 10 cell.” He sneered at her. “How is your brother?”

Lena was fuming, she saw Kara’s head whip back and forth between the two and then her gaze come to rest on the tattoo on Ben’s forearm. Her head snapped up suddenly.

“Nachos! Nachos--I smell nachos! That’s going to hit the spot! Let’s get some nachos! Bye Ben!” 

She grabbed Lena’s hand and pulled her away from the table.

“What’s going on, Kara?”

Kara looked back at Ben, then stepped closer to Lena. “I think he’s the guy!”

“What guy?” 

“The guy! Lockwood! I just flashed on him! What did you do, attend Bad Guy High School?!”

Lena stared at her in disbelief. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, but he has some kind of connection to the Russian mob. I’m pretty sure _he’s_ the guy Ray is supposed to meet up with tonight, to hand off the superbomber plans!”

“Makes sense, he’s always been a dick,” Lena snarled. “Okay, you go find Ray and catch him up. Have him set up the meet. I’ll tip off the DJ.”

Kara looked bewildered. “Why? Why the DJ?”

Lena pointed up to the stage where Hank was waving his hands back and forth from behind the turntables, currently blasting Tik Tok by Ke$ha. Kara stared up in disbelief. “Well, that’s hilarious.”

Lena smirked and headed to the stage, leaving Kara to find Ray. She found him bobbing his head to the music with a drink in his hand. 

“Special Agent Dawson! Any word?”

“My bosses at Langley have informed me that that’s the guy you’ll be meeting,” she replied, pointing over to Lockwood, who was sitting at the bar.

Ray’s face fell. “Our target is Ben Lockwood?” He sighed. “Of course. The guy who terrorised me in high school, is now going to terrorise the entire world with my superbomber plans!”

Kara tried to put on her best super smooth Special Agent demeanor. “You’re gonna be just fine, Palmer. You have my _personal_ guarantee.”

Ray smiled at her in relief. They headed over to Lockwood at the bar. Ray looked as if he were about to faint as he walked up. 

“Uhh, excuse me, Ben? I believe I’m supposed to see you about a certain...transaction?”

Ben gave him a look of bewilderment. _“Palmer_? Wow, you are the last guy I thought I’d be having this conversation with.” He chuckled. “Alright fine, meet me outside in five.”

Kara led Ray over to a table to wait, and he caught Ray staring across the room at Nora, who was working the room. He sighed dejectedly. “I never should have stolen the bomber plans. I should have gone right to you guys. But they threatened my wife...I just wasn’t thinking clearly.”

He looked up at Kara earnestly. “You see, I’m just a guy who likes math, you know? And somehow I got a beautiful woman like that to fall in love with me. I have to pinch myself sometimes. It’s like I’m dreaming.”

Kara’s mind wandered to Lena as he spoke, and almost if she had conjured her from thought alone, she saw Lena across the room walking toward her. The agent smiled conspiratorially at her as she headed toward the door. Kara felt her heart skip several beats.

“Ah forget it,” Ray was saying, “I mean, how can I expect a badass like you to understand?”

Kara paused and furrowed her brow. Then she set her jaw. “You know what Ray? Sometimes...sometimes the nerd gets the girl.”

***

Lena watched as Kara set the meet with Ben, then watched as she stood talking with Ray. It was getting harder and harder to deny how she felt about Kara. She looked amazing tonight, hair half up, half down in curls, her fitted suit hugging the unexpectedly toned body underneath. She felt a surge of warmth in her chest as she moved nearer to the blonde, unable to resist smiling at her as she passed.

She walked out into the parking lot, passing Henshaw crouched behind a tree, gun drawn. She followed his line of sight and found Ben leaning on the trunk of his car, staring at her.

“Waiting for someone?” she asked seductively.

“Got plenty of time for you,” he replied. “Where’s your girlfriend?”

“Oh don’t worry about her,” she said slyly.

He shook his head in disbelief. “Can’t believe you’re that same Tess from high school. You’ve changed so much.”

“Well, I’m still the same girl on the inside,” she replied.

“I bet you miss your brother, don’t you,” he asked, stepping into her personal space. She could smell the liquor on his breath. “He was the man of the house, after your daddy died, right?” He reached around and grabbed her ass. “But you know you can always call me daddy.”

She slapped him.

“Oof,” he chuckled, “that’s alright, I like my ladies rou--”

She drew back and landed a roundhouse kick to his face. He dropped to the ground as Hank ran up next to her.

“Great,” he sighed, “now we know he’s a perv, but we don’t know if he’s the perp.”

Lena brushed some hair out of her face. “Yeah, sorry, I’m just working through some childhood issues.”

Hank dug through Lockwood’s pockets and grabbed his keys, unlocking the trunk. They lifted a blanket covering the floor and discovered a treasure trove of paraphernalia.

“Knock-off watches, bootleg DVDs…” he lifted up the other half of the blanket, revealing a bag of weed. “He came out here to sell a dime bag to Palmer,” he snarled, throwing the weed back into the trunk. “The guy’s small time.”

“So if Lockwood isn’t our guy, then who is?”

***

“I mean, was I born to be a lawman? Nah. I’d say it’s more of a calling.” Kara was telling Ray as they walked around the gym, waiting for Hank and Lena to return. “I guess I just got a bit of the shine,” she said with a haughty smirk.

She looked up and noticed two burly men standing on the edge of the crowd looking around and flashed on them. They were part of the Russian mob.

“Oh no.”

Ray looked at her in alarm. “What’s ‘oh no’?”

“Slight wrinkle in the plan. We’re gonna have to improvise!” She pushed Ray toward the double doors leading to the rest of the school, just as the two men spotted them. She ran to the stage and grabbed the microphone, stopping the music.

“Welcome! Welcome Metropolitan High, Class of 2010, go Scorpions!!”

The crowd cheered, and Kara watched as the two men made their way toward the stage slowly. She saw Hank and Lena re-enter the gymnasium, and her shoulders dropped a little. Now she just had to point out the thugs without blowing her cover. She saw Nora in the crowd watching her with narrowed eyes.

“For those of you who remember me, I clearly need no introduction,” she chuckled with the crowd. “And for those of you who don’t….well, we’re not here to talk about me! No, no I’m here to talk about some people that will cause you to _FLASH_!” She emphasised the word to catch Lena’s attention, and sure enough, she saw both her and Hank’s head snap in her direction.

“Yeah, flash! Flash _back_ that is! So, maybe with a few hints, and a little bit of luck, we can find two special Scorpions and throw some love on them!”

She walked over to the spotlight and started moving it around the room, landing on the first of the two thugs.

“How about this guy, huh? Michael Adler!” Kara started saying the first thing that came into her head. “Drooled his way through Spanish class---se habla espanol? I know you do, Michael!”

She spotted Hank making his way toward the thug, so she swung the spotlight around to the other thug, who was in a heated discussion with Nora. 

“Who else do we have? Oh look everyone! It’s...Chippy!” She groaned inwardly at her inability to think of an actual name. “Yeah! Chippy...Sternin. Remember? All-star pole vaulter who was unfortunately sidelined with a horrible case of impetigo. I was rooting for you buddy, I thought you were gonna go All-State, but you know what? It just wasn’t in the cards.”

She saw an organiser for the reunion making her way toward the stage so she quickly wrapped up her spiel with a quick ‘Go Scorpions!’ and jumped off the stage looking for Ray and Lena.

***

Lena and Hank made their way into the gym and spotted Kara up on the stage. 

“What the hell is she doing?” Hank growled.

“...people that will cause you to _FLASH!_ ” Kara was saying. They both snapped their heads up to look at her as she swung the spotlight over the crowd and pointed out one of the thugs she’d flashed on.

She watched Kara swing the light over to the second thug, who seemed to be arguing with Nora. 

“She’s a part of this,” she whispered to Hank.

“Go, I’ve got these two,” Hank replied.

Lena followed Nora as she made her way into the locker rooms adjacent to the gym. She pulled her gun out of her thigh holster and slipped off her heels, leaving them by the door.

“Nora?” 

She crept around the end of one set of lockers.

“Why’d you do it, Nora?”

A disembodied voice came echoing through the room. “Revenge of the cheerleaders. We marry the geeks because they’re the ones who get rich, but Ray wasn’t ambitious enough. And these Russians offered me a lot of money for his plans.”

Lena was blindsided as Nora came around the end of the lockers and landed a kick to her head. Her gun flew out of her hands as she fell onto the bench, ducking another kick. She jumped up and raised her fists, dodging another punch.

“Who do you work for? I can help you!”

Nora turned and landed a double kick to her temple. “I’m self-employed.”

Lena straightened up and felt a pent up fury rise up in her breast. She began throwing punch after punch, forcing Nora back into defense. “Your name has been at the top of my list of people who need a good ass kicking for years!”

She landed a solid punch to Nora’s head but was forced down onto the bench by another kick. When she recovered, Nora had fled the room. Lena ran to the end of the lockers and towards the communal showers, where blood droplets led. She crept slowly into the room, fists raised, but was blindsided again as Nora attacked from behind, throwing her into the pipes. She grabbed onto one and found it loose. She yanked on it until it gave, letting out a continuous spray of cold water. 

Nora grabbed an adjacent pipe and pulled until it gave way. 

_Shoddy craftsmanship,_ Lena thought briefly, before striking Nora with the pipe. She lunged and ducked, the pipes clanging together and their grunts of pain the only sounds audible this far from the gymnasium, echoing off the tile. She struck Nora in the mouth with pipe and ran after the woman, as she tried to retreat.

Lena jabbed the pipe at her through the other shower pipes and Nora grabbed it, yanking on the other end and pulling her into the hard metal, before slamming an elbow into her face. Lena fell against the pipes and Nora whipped her around, pinning her to the showers with the pipe jammed against her throat.

“You should have been suspicious of me from the start,” she panted. “I mean, how could a girl like me _ever_ fall in love with a dorky nerd like him!”

Out of nowhere, Kara’s face popped into Lena’s head. 

“You’d be surprised!” She threw her head back into Nora’s nose, breaking it. Nora fell to the ground, but kicked her legs out and knocked Lena’s out from under her. Lena fell to the cold, wet tile hard. Nora got to her feet unsteadily, and staggered out of the showers and back into the locker room.

Lena pulled herself to her feet and followed, creeping as silently as she could through the rows of lockers.

“Now I gotta ask,” Nora’s voice came from the other end of the locker room, “how’d you wind up working for the feds? I mean, if you had told me in high school that Tess Mercer wanted to grow up to be an agent, I would have said ‘dream, jailbird’s sister, dream’. Guess you didn’t follow in Lex’s footsteps after all.” 

She made her way toward the voice, peeking around the ends of the lockers until she found her. She had found Lena’s gun. Lena groaned inwardly. She waited until Nora turned away and then jumped to attack her, kicking her square in the chest and back into a glass trophy case, shards sticking into Nora’s back and arms.

Nora tried to lift the gun but got caught on a basketball trophy. Lena spotted a large bronze scorpion bust hanging two feet above Nora’s head. She pulled a knife out of her thigh sheath and threw it at the bust, knocking it off it’s hanger and onto Nora’s head, rendering her unconscious.

She reached over and grabbed the gun out of Nora’s limp hand and spit a mouthful of blood next to her. 

“Go Scorpions,” she muttered wryly.

She holstered her gun and headed back to the gym, her bare, wet feet slapping the ground as she walked. She peeled off her name tag and slapped it to the gym door. She’d made her mark here after all, but she wasn’t Tess Mercer anymore. As far as she was concerned, that girl was dead.

***

Hank followed the Russians out of the gym, and down a hallway where they found Ray trying to hide behind a row of lockers. One of the thugs grabbed him and shoved him inside an empty locker. 

“You have three second to tell me where plans are!” The thug slammed the locker shut and pulled out his gun, cocking it and pointing it at the door.

“One, two--”

A silenced gunshot rang out as Hank shot the russian’s hand, making him drop the gun. The other thug reached for his gun but Hank drove his leg into the man’s stomach hard, cracking his ribs. He spun around and threw the first thug against the lockers, slamming his head into the door.

He heard Ray cry out, ‘Agent Dawson, help!’ and rolled his eyes as Kara came running around the corner, panting.

“Thanks a lot Mad Dog. I can always count on you to be in the right place at the right time.”

Kara stared at him in confusion until he pulled the locker door open and Ray burst out. He saw the bodies laying on the ground and then stared up at Kara in wonderment. 

“I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Agent Dawson,” he said with a reverent smile.

Kara gave an uncomfortable chuckle and pulled Hank aside. “I’m glad I’m not the one who has to tell him that his wife was the one who set him up.”

Hank snorted. “That’s why love is for suckers.”

Kara laughed lightly. “Yeah...oh hey, have you seen Lena anywhere?”

Hank snorted again. “Sucker.”

***

Lena made her way into the gymnasium as the bubbly girl from the name tag table was making an announcement. She spotted Kara, Hank, and Ray entering from the other side of the gym.

“The queen of the Class of 2010 ten year reunion is... _TESS MERCER!!_ ”

Lena paled and froze. 

“Tess? Where are you?”

The spotlight swung around and landed on Lena. Kara looked over and finally caught sight of Lena, her green dress soaked and torn, her hair drenched and hanging in damp curls around her face. Her makeup was smeared, her lip was busted and bleeding, and she had a large purple bump swelling up on her cheek. 

The reunion committee woman bounced over to Lena and placed the crown on Lena’s head with a ‘Congratulations Tess! See you at the 20th reunion!’ and Kara made to head over to Lena to see if she was okay. As she approached, she saw a small smile begin to creep over Lena’s face as she reached up and touched the crown. 

Kara pushed her way through the cheering crowd, and when she finally came to a stop next to Lena, she watched the small smile grow into a full blown grin. And Kara thought, perhaps she’d never been more beautiful than in that moment.

***

Lena rose to answer the knock on her door and found Kara standing outside holding a Big Belly Burger bag. She couldn’t help but smile. Somehow, even with as little as she had given the blonde, she always knew her favourite things.

She let her in and they walked over to her table and sat down. Kara pulled a smaller bag out of the first bag and revealed a raw hamburger patty. 

“For your shiner,” she said with a grin.

Lena laughed out loud. “Isn’t this supposed to be a raw steak?” She asked, pressing the patty to her cheek.

“Not on a Nerd Herd salary, it isn’t,” she retorted. “I did, however, manage to scrape together enough cash to get you a cooked one as well.” She pulled a burger out of the bag. “Medium rare with--”

“Extra pickles,” they said at the same time.

Kara chuckled. “Come on! Who do you think you’re dealing with here!”

“Well, I never doubted you, Special Agent Kara Dawson,” Lena said with a sweet smile.

Kara returned the smile and leaned back in her chair. “So I guess the big secret about you is you used to be just a typical high school student.”

Lena averted her gaze. Typical wasn’t exactly what she’d call it.

“Wish I knew what happened to change that,” Kara continued softly.

Lena turned her head and gazed out the window.

_San Diego, California. 2010._

_Lena’s head bobbed along with the radio as she turned down her street. She found half the roadway blocked with police and tactical teams. As she drove slowly by, she discovered they were at her house. Shit. Lex! She pulled the car over to the curb and watched as they dragged him out of the house, bleeding and screaming as they shoved him into the back of a police cruiser._

_Her breath left her and she found her hands were shaking as she put the car back in gear and drove away. This couldn’t be happening. Lex was all she had left._

_She drove to the nearby hiking trail and ran down the path until she found a lonely tree, knotted and bent. She counted ten steps west of the trunk and began to dig, the gritty earth staining her blue jeans. She unearthed a small metal box, its seams wrapped in tape to keep the elements out. She pulled her knife out and cut through the tape, pulling open the box, revealing its contents._

_Thick stacks of hundred dollar bills sat neatly packed in the box with an index card on top. She picked up the index card and read in Lex’s nearly illegible scribble:_

**_In Case of Emergency_ **

**_Love, Lex_ **

_She couldn’t stop the sob that escaped her lips. Lex had always told her that if anything bad happened, she could find help here. She hadn’t known what he meant, but now she scoffed. Of course it was money. It was always about money with Lex. And now they would both pay the price for his greed._

_She heard the muffled sounds of leaves shifting beneath feet and casually picked up her knife, before turning and tossing it handily at the intruder. It landed in the trunk of a tree next to a woman in a black suit. The woman looked at the knife, then back at Lena with an impressed look on her face._

_“Nice toss,” she said, pulling the knife out of the tree._

_“Who are you?” Lena asked sharply._

_“I’m the woman who put your brother in prison,” she replied, walking closer to Lena._

_Lena bent down and picked up the box of cash and held it tightly to her chest._

_“The question is, who are you? The woman took a step closer, one hand in her pocket. "In San Diego, you go by Tess Mercer. In Wisconsin, it was Katie O’Connell. Cleveland, it was Melissa Hobbs. Funny thing is, when I looked at your birth certificate, it said--”_

_“I get your point,” she interjected. “What do you want?”_

_“Your brother scammed some pretty dangerous people. I saved his life by putting him in jail.”_

_Lena took a step backward. “Well, don’t expect a thank you note from me.”_

_The woman smiled. “I can save your life too, Tess.”_

_Lena looked up into the woman’s face. She had kind eyes, wrinkled around the edges as if from years of smiling. She tucked the money box under her arm and held out her wrists to the woman._

_The woman shook her head. “No. Not that way.”_

_Lena dropped her hands in confusion._

_“Your brother trained you pretty well. The CIA can do even better.”_

_Lena looked up in surprise. The woman smirked._

_“You like names so much...what do you think about ‘Lena Luthor’?”_

_She handed Lena’s knife back to her._

_“I like it,” Lena replied softly._

_“Good,” the woman replied. She held out her hand to shake. “I’m Olivia Marsdin.”_

_***_

Lena drifted back into the present as she saw Kara waving a hand in front of her face.

“Hello? Earth to Lena?”

She looked up and saw a look of earnest concern on the blonde’s face and she couldn’t help but feel warmed by it.

“Okay, fine. I will answer _one_ question about my past. You’ve earned that much.”

She watched as Kara tilted her head thoughtfully and let out a pensive little ‘Hmmm’. She sat in thought for a moment. Then she looked back up to Lena with a small smile.

“No thanks,” she replied softly. 

Lena felt a breath she didn’t even know she was holding escape in relief.

“I don’t need to know anything more. Not about who you were,” Kara continued. “Because as much as you don’t think so, I know who you are.”

She smiled up at Lena with such softness that Lena felt a lump gather in her throat.

“A girl I’d like to share a cheeseburger with,” she finished with a lopsided smile.

Lena smiled across the table at the blonde and tried to ignore the butterflies gathering in swarms in her stomach.

“So, shall I get a knife?” Kara asked, clearing her throat.

“Actually, that won’t be necessary,” Lena replied, pulling up her pant leg and retrieving a knife from her ankle sheath, handing it to the blonde.

“That’s awesome...and a little disturbing,” said Kara with a laugh.

Lena pulled her legs to her chest and stared at the blonde over them. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve the affection of someone as sweet as Kara, but she knew for certain now that her feelings were not going away. She would need to confront them at some point. _But not today_ , she thought to herself. She smiled up at the blonde and watched as Kara blushed. Today, maybe she could just let herself fall a little.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your continued support! I love reading your comments because they're so informative but they also encourage me to keep going. Yall are the sweetest ❤ 
> 
> Come find me on twitter at @Magnum_Dorkus
> 
> P.S. just a quick edit to let yall know that I hear you about jealous Lena. Just be patient. 😉


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new Intersect is ready, which means Kara is almost free of the spy life----as long as nothing goes wrong.
> 
> Kara begins thinking about what she wants to do with her future---and who she wants to do it with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here. Have an early chapter to make up for the atrocity of last week. I reread the last chapter and cringed so, I hope this one is better.
> 
> That's what happens when you don't have a beta. You just make your mistakes in front of everyone like an idiot. 
> 
> Enjoy!!

“Before you do anything rash, I think you should know that I have the Cypher!” 

Kara could feel the blood rushing to her head as she dangled by her feet from the 24th story of the building, the hulking thug holding onto her ankles, the only thing keeping her from plummeting to her death.

“Hand it over right now,” he commanded.

“Don’t you think we should discuss terms first?”

He pulled her back up over the railing, grabbed a handful of her tie, and pushed her backward, so that the thin piece of fabric was the only thing holding her up from falling 24 stories. She gasped and squeezed her eyes closed.

“Now, who are you?” 

Kara squinted at the man standing between her and death. “You know what? You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you!”

He gave a little slack on her tie, letting her fall backward a few inches, and Kara cried out in fear.

“Last chance!  _ Who are you? _ ”

Kara began to hyperventilate. “K-Kara.”

“Okay,” the man began, “tell me everything, Kara.”

She hesitated. There was no way she could tell him everything, and there was no way he would believe her if she did. He released another inch of slack on her tie. She gasped and put her hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay! You see, the thing is, I kinda sorta work for the CIA and the NSA in my off hours when I’m not working at the store! This is kinda like a second job for me. And though I may not look it, being lanky of build, you should probably know I am probably the most important intelligence asset in the world.” 

She finished her ramble and chanced a look over her shoulder, beginning to hyperventilate again as she saw how high up she was.

“That is the single dumbest story I have ever heard,” the thug replied.

“That very well may be,” Kara began, “but if you drop me, there are a couple of people who are going to be  _ very _ upset.”

At that moment, the door to the room burst open, and Hank and Lena raced into the room, guns drawn.

“Let the geek go!” Hank shouted.

“Wait!” Lena yelled, “Not out the window!”

“Aren’t we picky,” Hank growled as he aimed his pistol at the thug.

The thug grabbed Kara and tossed her across the room as if she was a feather pillow, and then leapt over the railing and rappelled down the side of the building. Hank ran to the window as Lena ran to Kara’s side.

Lena checked her over. “Why didn’t you stay in the car?” 

“You know what?” Kara panted out. “It’s never safe in the car!”

Hank turned back to the pair, stepping away from the window. “Well, did you get it?”

Kara tried to catch her breath. Hank moved closer to her and his face turned stony. “Tell me you got it, Danvers!”

“Yeah I got it,” she said, pulling the Cypher drive out of her pocket. “Of course I got it, it’s me!”

Lena smiled at her and helped her to her feet. 

“Come on, let’s go brief the General.”

***

“Excellent work retrieving the Cypher, Lena,” said Director Marsdin. “Hank, our transport team will be coming to take the Cypher out of National City.”

Lena and Hank exchanged a look. They were standing in front of Hank’s monitor, Kara seated between them at Henshaw’s desk. 

“General, what exactly is the Cypher,” Lena asked. “I mean, mercenaries break into the NSA lab and it’s the only thing they take?”

General Haley and Director Marsdin exchanged a look.

“The Cypher is the artificial brain for the new Intersect computer.”

Kara leaned forward in her chair. “The  _ new  _ Intersect? It's ready?”

“We’ve been working on the new one ever since the original Intersect was destroyed,” Marsdin answered. “The Cypher is the final piece.”

“Whoa whoa, wait, time out. What happens to  _ me _ when the new Intersect is ready?”

“Tomorrow the new computer will be online and operational. Operation Danvers officially comes to an end. You’ll be done with us. No more briefings, no more missions, no more spies.” She gave her a soft smile. “Enjoy the rest of your life, Kara.” 

Kara sat staring in disbelief as they signed off. She couldn’t help the small smile that crept over her face. Hank ushered her and Lena out of his apartment, and as they walked back to her own, Lena reached out and touched her arm.

“Are you okay, Kara?”

Kara brought her thoughts back to the moment and looked into Lena’s concerned eyes. “Yeah! Yeah, I mean, I don’t believe it, but...I think I’m great!”

“Well, you’re gonna get your old life back.”

Kara chuckled. “Yeah I was starting to think that you and Hank were going to be my spy protectors forever...or whatever the adult version of forever is.”

They came to a stop outside Kara’s door and Lena gave her a smirk, eyebrow arched. “Don’t tell me you’re going to miss all of this.”

“No,” Kara laughed. “No, of course not. I don’t think I’m really cut out for a job where you disarm a bomb, steal a diamond, and then get dangled off a building.”

“Well, you could have fooled me,” Lena replied warmly.

“That’s very kind of you to say, but I’m pretty sure my girlish screams in the face of danger give me away.”

Lena merely gave her a sweet smile. There was a pause before she asked, “So, what happens now? You’re almost free, what are you gonna do next?”

Kara took a deep breath. “Well, you know I’ve got the Nerd Herd--”

Lena cut in. “Kara, can I tell you something?”

Kara looked at her curiously. “Of course.”

Lena gazed up at her intently. “You can do  _ anything _ . I have seen you in action, and I’m not just talking about the bomb defusing or the diamond stealing. I mean...anything you wanted, you could have.”

Kara stared into her eyes, those beautiful heterochromatic eyes. She wanted desperately to believe Lena’s words, and on some level she did. But what she wanted also included Lena, and she wasn’t quite sure that’s what the agent meant. So she settled for giving Lena a soft smile and a thank you before bidding her goodnight.

*** 

Hank set the Cypher down on his desk as his monitor blinked back to life.

“Thought you might call,” he growled at the screen.

“Major Henshaw, you understand the situation,” General Haley replied. “We can’t have another Intersect wandering around National City, getting into trouble.”

Hank settled into the chair behind his desk with no small amount of unease. “General, Kara may be a novice spy, but the results speak for themselves. Surely we can find another exit strategy?”

The general gave him a hard look. “You have your orders, Major. Tomorrow night, eliminate Kara Danvers.”

She signed off.

Hank unholstered his pistol and cocked it, staring down at the cool metal in his hand. He sighed, “I used to like that sound.”

***

Kara smiled as her alarm went off the next morning. She bounded out of bed and turned on some music as she danced her way through her morning routine, elated to finally be free of the Intersect, the spy life, and all the anxieties that came with it.

She sat down to breakfast with Alex and Kelly and poured herself some cereal.

“You seem to be in a good mood this morning,” Alex said with a smirk. “Did I miss Lena coming over last night?”

Kara blushed. “No, Alex, I’ve just been thinking a lot about my life and job and stuff…” she began tentatively.

“Unburden yourself, Kara,” Kelly replied curiously, “where’s that head of yours?”

“I don’t know, I just think maybe you guys are right. I shouldn’t be working in a Nerd Herd. I should have a real job, with a real future. I should be moving forward with my life.”

She watched Alex’s eyes widen as she dropped her fork back onto her plate. “What happened?”

Kara tilted her head. “You know when you meet someone and they just kinda flip things on their head and shake things up a bit?”

She glanced down at her watch and saw she was dangerously close to being late. “Oh crap, I’ve got to go!”

“No!” Alex jumped up out of her chair and dashed after Kara. “No, talk to me! At least tell me if this is a good thing or a bad thing.”

Kara gaped at her. “No! No this is a good thing, it’s a great thing! It’s not like a Scientology cult thing...it’s something I’ve been thinking I want.”

Alex stared at her in awe. “Okay...okay. Well then, great! I’m really happy for you!” 

Kara watched as her sister tried to contain her enthusiasm. Alex had always hated that she had settled for the Nerd Herd. She’d always told her she was meant for more. She smiled at her sister’s barely contained excitement.

“I’m just--I’m, like, super excited right now, and I’m just trying to keep it in,” she said with glee.

“Of course,” Kara smirked. “Which is healthier, I think. But you’re the doctor so--”

“I’m so proud of you!!” She grabbed Kara and pulled her into a giant hug. They were joined by Kelly who wrapped her arms around them both.

Kara chuckled and then headed out to work. She wasn’t sure if it was just her mood, or if the sun really was shining brighter today. As she walked into the Nerd Herd that morning, one thought kept flashing in her mind. Something that she knew she had to do.

***

Kara walked into the wiener hut and spotted Lena behind the counter, her dark hair shimmering in the sunlight, glowing almost red.  _ God, she’s so beautiful. _

“Hey!” Lena greeted with a bright smile.

“Hi,” she greeted shyly, all bravery deserting her in the face of the glorious agent.

They stood in silence for a moment, as Lena waited for Kara to speak. When she didn’t, Lena prompted her kindly.

“So...what’s up?”

Kara looked down at her feet and adjusted her glasses. She took a deep breath before bringing her eyes back up to Lenas.

“You wanna go on a date some time?” Her heart was pounding and her palms were clammy. “I mean, a date without aliases or gunfire?”

Lena smiled at her in disbelief. “Uh...like a  _ real _ date?”

She stared at the agent nervously. “Yeah?”

“Kara,” she smiled at the blonde kindly, clearing her throat, “I’m still a CIA agent and there are a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t do that.”

“What do you have to lose? In a week, you’re going to be undercover in some place like Jakarta in a knife fight with some evil doer, and in that exact moment, you’re going to wish that you’d spent one last night of fun with me.” She smiled hopefully.

Lena stood silently for a moment, merely smirking at the blonde, her eyes shining brightly. Kara could feel a trickle of sweat make its way down the back of her neck, and she subtly rubbed her palms on her pants as she waited for the agent’s reply.

“Okay,” Lena replied softly.

Kara paled. “Really?”

“Mmhmm.”

She grinned widely. “Tonight. Our first real date.”

“Or our second first date,” Lena joked.

“No gunfight, I promise,” she shot back with a grin. 

She strode out of the Wienerlicious feeling a thousand pounds lighter. She was about to be free of the spy life, she had a date with the girl of her dreams, and she was on her way to improving her life. Things had never looked brighter.

***

Kara put on her best button up shirt, blue to bring out her eyes, with tight khaki chinos and her best oxfords. She almost went for contacts again, but decided at the last minute that maybe Lena liked her glasses. She smiled at the thought.

She strode through the living room, head held high, and found Alex and Kelly laying on the couch together watching tv. 

“Date tonight?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah! Yeah, we’re gonna go grab some Chinese and then maybe go listen to some music afterwards.”

“You hear that, Alex? You recognise the sound of a proper date?” She teased.

Alex yawned and stretched. “Sorry babe, the tank is empty.” She grabbed her empty beer bottle and stood up, walking over to Kara. “So, any revelations? Any idea about what you’re going to do?”

Kara tilted her head back and forth. “Yeah, a few.”

Alex narrowed her eyes. “If you say ‘pilot the Millenium Falcon’ I will hit you.”

“What? Why would I say  _ that _ ? That’s absurd. I’m gonna be a ninja assassin.”

“No.”

“Olympic--”

“Uh-uh.”

“Master of--”

“Try again.”

Kara smiled and sighed, taking a deep breath. “Secret agent.”

Alex closed her eyes and grimaced. “This is what happens when you sit in front of the television set too long.” She grabbed Kara’s arms. “ _ Seriously _ . What are you gonna do?”

Kara smiled and huffed out a laugh. “I mean, I don’t know. I’ve got a bunch of ideas. So much to choose from. I mean, I want to finish college--I think that’s important. And I want to travel. And...I don’t know, I want to learn an obscure language that only really cool people know, or something.” She chuckled sheepishly. “But oddly enough, not one of my dreams includes working at the Nerd Herd for another week.”

Alex raised her eyebrows and smiled. “Well, look who’s growing up.”

The doorbell rang. “That’ll be Lena,” she said, heading toward the door. She pulled it open to find Winn instead.

“Sup dude! I know you have a date, not gonna get in the way. Just wondered if you had 5 to 45 minutes to study a new Call of Duty strategy?”

Kara’s eyes widened. 

“Kara…” she heard Alex’s warning tone from behind her. She turned and grimaced at her sister.

“Baby steps, sis.”

She led Winn to her bedroom, where he unrolled a poster board that was covered in markings like a football play, dictating the movements of their Call of Duty team.

“Alright,” he began with the seriousness of an actual general preparing for war, “after our last battle with those Best Buy douches, I started working on this,” he gestured to the poster board, pulling a collapsible pointer out of his pocket, “and how we can take them all out.”

Kara looked over the board and could not make heads nor tails of Winn’s chicken scratch writing.

“Alright, listen up, here are the specs. Are you ready?”

Kara nodded with fake seriousness.

Winn slapped the board with his pointer as he ran through the specs. “23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, 7 heavy gunners, 4 demolitions experts, and enough ammunition to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fifty gamers, one call, all ready for battle.” He slammed the pointer closed. “With this team assembled, and my plan, I think we can beat ‘em.”

Kara felt giddy with excitement over the strategy, which was starting to take shape as she deciphered Winn’s hieroglyphics. She clapped him on the back. “Winn, you are my new hero.”

“I know,” Winn said, smugly as the doorbell rang, indicating Lena’s arrival. Kara practically shoved Winn out her bedroom window in her haste to get to the door.

***

Hank was cleaning his pistol when the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of the transport team who would be taking the Cypher back to the CIA. He checked his security cam.

“Yeah?” 

“Messenger!” 

He opened the door for the courier.

“Pick up call placed by a G. Haley?”

Hank looked him up and down suspiciously. In his line of work, suspicion meant survival. 

“Verification code?” 

“Morning glory.”

He nodded curtly and returned to his desk to retrieve the Cypher. He handed it to the courier who placed it in a small shipping box.

Hank glanced around the courtyard. “Where’s your back-up?”

The courier placed a small mask over his nose and mouth and sprayed a foreign substance in Henshaw’s face, blinding him and causing him to fall to the floor. He felt his nose start to bleed and as he lay on his back, he felt the blood run down his rapidly closing throat, choking him. He heard the courier make a call as he left.

“It’s done. I have the Cypher.”

He flipped over onto his stomach and began to crawl to his desk, where he kept a syringe with a broad spectrum antidote to most poisons. He pulled the drawer out with a shaking hand and heard it shatter on the floor as he dug around the debris for the syringe case. Finding it, he jabbed it into his neck and slammed the plunger down. He immediately felt his throat begin to clear and he took big gasping breaths as he tossed the syringe away, pulling himself to the bathroom to run his head under the shower, washing away the poison still in his eyes.

***

Kara gazed across the table at Lena, taking in her appearance. She was wearing a form-fitting black dress that hugged her every curve, and she had her lush, dark hair down and curled, with one side pinned behind her ear. She looked stunning. Finally, they were on a real date. She could barely contain her excitement.

“So how did you hear about this place, anyway?” Lena asked, nabbing a potsticker from the dish between them.

“Winn, as a matter of fact! The man has a black belt in food. I trust any recommendation he gives me for food items less than $10.”

Lena snickered. “So our first date is a Winn recommendation?”

Kara smiled. “Wow! No faith in the little nerd?” 

Lena laughed lightly.

“Well, I think you should know he’s always been supportive of our fake relationship. And he’s never found it remotely unbelievable that someone like me could be dating...uh…” She cleared her throat. “You know…”

Lena looked at her curiously. “What?”

“Um...you know...you…”

Lena took a bite of her lo mein and gave her a seductive look. “What about me?”

Kara chuckled nervously. “You’re really gonna make me say it aren’t you?”

Lena smiled and tilted her head from side to side, but said nothing.

“Wow. Okay, fine. Alright, we’ll play it your way,” Kara said, smiling. “A girl like you. Or, more appropriately, a woman like you, considering you could probably kick the ass of everyone in this place.”

Lena’s smile softened as she gazed over the table at Kara.

“And uh, a smart woman, at that,” Kara continued. “Not to mention cool, and…” she took in a deep breath, “... _ extremely _ beautiful, and--and you can stop me at any time with the compliments if they’re becoming, you know--”

Lena laughed quietly, a blush spread across her cheeks. “No...no that was very sweet.” She looked into Kara’s deep blue eyes and found her toes had begun to tingle. 

Kara smiled softly at her, an earnestness etched on her face. Then she huffed out a laugh. “Sweet? Golly gee, thanks for making me feel like I’m 8.”

Lena laughed out loud. “Well, you’re not so bad yourself.”

Kara’s eyes crinkled as she smiled at the compliment. “Please, I’m  _ fantastic _ .”

Lena sensed the self-deprecation in the remark and was quick to remedy it. “Yeah, you are.”

Kara looked up at her in surprise. She hadn’t expected Lena to say that. She cleared her throat, trying to cover her own awkwardness.

“So, what would Hank think if he knew we were doing this?”

“It would probably kill him,” Lena joked, cracking open her fortune cookie.

Kara nodded at the cookie as Lena pulled the paper out. “So, does it say where you’re going next? Your next mission?”

Lena looked up at her conspiratorially. “Actually, it does.”

Kara looked at her in shock. “Really?”

Lena laughed. “No, not really. Besides, it doesn’t work that way. They’ll probably give me a new cover and move me as far away from here as possible.” She gave Kara a closed-lipped sad smile.

Kara cocked her head. “What if they didn’t?”

“Kara, a CIA officer doesn’t get to choose.”

Kara leaned closer, across the little table. “You know, I still have an awful lot of secrets in my head. The Lindbergh baby, the formula for new Coke…”

Lena leaned in closer. They were only a few inches apart. “What are you saying, Kara?”

“What I’ve always wanted to say, Lena.”

She leaned in and pressed her lips to Lena’s in a soft kiss. She heard Lena’s breath hitch as she pulled back. She was mere seconds away from going in for another when she caught sight of a man in her peripheral vision and began to flash.

“No no no no, not now! Not now!” She gasped and turned to the other patrons in the restaurant and began to flash on them, one by one.

Lena leaned toward her. “Kara what is it?”

Kara sighed and leaned back in her chair, dejected. “We’re surrounded.”

One by one the patrons stood up and pulled out guns, pointing them at the duo.

“Lena, you have your gun, right?”

“Nope,” she replied, popping the p.

“What?! Why not?!”

“You don’t bring a gun on a real date, Kara!” 

A large figure stepped up to the side of their table. “Hello again, Kara.” It was the thug that had dangled her off the side of the building.

Lena looked up at him. “And you are?”

“My name is Mick Rory, and I need you to come with me.” He turned back to Kara.

Lena was quick to direct the attention back onto herself. “Now why would we do that, Mick?”

“Because I assume you find me imposing. Don’t worry, be honest. I’m going for imposing.”

“Mission accomplished,” Kara squeaked out.

“Well, let me tell you something. The people that hired me? They give  _ me  _ the heebie-jeebies.”

“You know, when you put it in context like that, I--I--” Kara stuttered out.

“Let’s go,” Mick cut her off, “We’ll take care of the check.”

Kara looked over at Lena, who was slowly inching her hand toward her set of chopsticks. Kara attempted a distraction. “Um, are you sure? Because the Moo Goo Gai Pan is very expensive here, so we could probably split it, if you wanted? I mean, how much do bad guys normally tip?”

Lena grabbed the chopsticks and rammed them at his face, but he caught her arm, twisting it behind her back. She attempted to punch with her free hand, but he dodged the blow and twisted her arm further, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Lena!” Kara stood up quickly.

“Move and she dies!” Mick commanded.

Kara sat back down. A beeping filtered into the commotion and Kara realised it was coming from her wristwatch.

“What is that?” Mick asked, looking around for the source of the noise.

“It’s a homing device,” Lena gasped out with a smirk.

Suddenly, bright white headlights lit up their faces as an SUV drove toward the front of the restaurant.

“ _ MOVE! _ ” Lena shouted as she threw herself out of the way of the oncoming vehicle, grabbing Kara's hand and pulling her down with her, covering Kara with her body.

The SUV drove straight through the wall of the restaurant, showering them in glass and debris. As soon as the car stopped, Hank hopped out. He turned to check on the pair, but was caught off guard by a punch from Rory. Lena pulled Kara to her feet and shoved her into the back of the vehicle.

“Hank, drive!” Lena shouted, as the other agent climbed back into the truck, holding his cheek where a nasty bruise was blooming. He reversed out of the restaurant in a hail of gunfire, spinning the car around, and speeding off into the night.

“Hank, we have to go back and find out who those people work for!” Lena said from the backseat. 

“Too many of them. Not an option.”

“Well,” Kara began tentatively, “At least we still have the Cypher.”

Hank glanced into the rearview mirror at her and quickly looked away. “Yeah...about that…”

Kara looked up at him quickly. “What?”

“It looks like you’re still the Intersect, Kara.”

Kara slumped back into her seat, and Lena leaned over and clasped her hand. “Don’t worry Kara, we’ll get it back.”

***

Kara moved through the next day in a daze. There was no more dancing through her morning routine, no enthusiastic life changes to plan for, no sun shining brightly just for her. It was as if someone had put a gray filter over the world and blurred the edges of her vision. She had come so close to being free. So close to going back to a normal life. And now, because of Mick Rory, she was back where she started.

She sat in the breakroom munching slowly on a cup of yogurt with Winn talking her ear off about god knows what. She couldn’t be bothered to listen. She’d just tuned back in to hear him talking about some “noob” he’d “pwned” or something, when Hank came bursting into the break room. Winn jumped up to greet him, but Hank merely shoved him into the employee lockers and made his way to the first aid kit, looking for something to treat the weeping cut on his cheek from Rory’s ring. 

Kara stared up at the indentation the ring had made and suddenly flashed. When her eyes finally uncrossed, she gasped. “Winn, I need to talk to Hank alone!” She ushered him out of the breakroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

“What is it,” Hank growled.

“I know where they are!”

“Who?”

“Who--what do you mean ‘who’? Rory! The guy who smashed you in the face last night?! I flashed on your scar, it’s the emblem for their organisation! They have a secret hideout downtown, warehouse 17 on 103rd street. We’ll hop in the Herder and we can--”

“Cool your jets, hotshot, I’ll call it in.”

“What do you mean ‘call it in’? There’s no time! They could be on the move already!!”

“Relax,” Hank responded calmly, “I’m not going to rush us into a hideout situation unless we are absolutely certain we have the upper hand. We’ll get the Cypher. It just might take some time.”

Kara slammed her hand down on the table. “Hank! I can’t take this anymore! Do you understand what I’m saying? I cannot do this anymore! I almost died twice in a period of  _ one day _ ! Alright? And when I’m looking at my life, and I see what my future could be? I see that it doesn’t completely suck! Your new Intersect is almost done, and when it is, I’m free, I’m cool, I’m clear, I’m out of here! I have a future and a life that I want to live!”

Hank stared at her in stony silence. “A future is a dangerous thing, Kara, it doesn’t always work out like you want it to.”

Kara stared at him in confused disbelief. “What happened to you? You were this close to being done with me and being a real spy again.”

Hank sneered. “What, you don’t want me here to catch you when you fall?”

Kara felt a wave of rage wash over her at his indifference to her plight. She bowed her head, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “No, as a matter of fact, I’d rather have you flying jets and blowing things up.”

He leaned back in his chair and gave her a curious look. “Wait here.” He strode out of the break room, dialing his cell phone. After a few minutes she ran after him and followed him into the Wienerlicious, where Lena was undoing her apron, as Hank returned from the base under the freezer with a bag full of weaponry.

“Hey, what’s happening? Are you guys going down there?”

Lena grabbed the bag Hank tossed to her. “We’re on it, Kara, don’t worry.”

They headed toward the door. Kara followed them to the entrance. “Let me come along! You gotta bring Kara Dawson! Remember? Debonair superspy who also happens to have the Intersect in her head, you know, me? I can help you guys!”

“Kara Dawson isn’t your real name, Kara, you made her up,” Hank yelled, “You’re just Kara Danvers, and you’re not a real spy!”

Kara felt her body deflate and her brow furrowed.

“We have a tactical team meeting us at the location that you gave Henshaw, we’ll take down Rory and find the Cypher and  _ you  _ will go back to work,” Lena instructed, as they walked out of the restaurant, leaving Kara standing alone in the entryway.

She locked up the wiener hut and walked back to the Nerd Herd, moping a little at Hank’s words.  _ You’re just Kara Danvers, and you’re not a real spy. _ He hadn’t needed to tell her that, she was well aware. She just wanted to be of some use, and to be on the frontlines so that she could make sure the Cypher was retrieved so that this nightmare could finally end.

She walked into the Nerd Herd and was immediately found by Winn, who informed her she had an off-site computer repair emergency. She sighed and grabbed her toolkit and paperwork, and jumped into the Herder. 

The whole way to the location she wondered if Lena and Hank’s breach had been successful, if they had reacquired the Cypher, or if they were too late and Rory’s team had already moved on.

She walked up to the door of the warehouse that was the place of the install and knocked on the door. “Nerd Herd computer repair! I’m here about the--”

The door swung open revealing...Rory.

“--computer emergency…”

“Hello, Kara,” said Rory with a smile, “come on in.”

He guided her deeper into the warehouse, a gun pressed against her back. Kara took in her surroundings, looking for a means of escape, should the opportunity arise. Instead, she found armed thugs stationed all over the warehouse, near every door, up on the catwalks. She was surrounded.

“So,” she cleared her throat, “what’s the computer emergency?”

“Here’s the problem, Kara. You saw my face, you heard my voice.”

“That’s not a problem!” Kara’s voice pitched higher on the last word. “That’s not a problem at all! I forget things all the time! Ask my sister, I forgot her birthday, I forget my social security number, just anything, ask me, I’ll forget it!”

Mick chuckled and began stretching, pulling an arm across his chest, followed by the other.

“What exactly are you doing?” Kara asked in confusion.

“I’m stretching,” he replied, “getting limber.”

“Why are you doing that?”

“So I won’t pull a muscle when I break your neck,” he rolled his own neck at that admission. “Maybe you should get limber too.”

Kara glanced around the room again, desperate for any escape, when her eyes landed on a small case, just behind Rory. In it, sat the Cypher. She turned around and walked slowly toward the windows, trying to think.

“Where are you going? There’s nobody here to help you.” He chuckled. “Oh yeah, your friends. They’re next on my to-do list. See, you walked into a trap, Kara, if that is your real name.”

Kara’s eyes shot open wide as an idea came to her. It was risky. She’d probably die anyway, but it was worth a try. She turned around and gazed at Mick triumphantly, trying to project a cockyness that she did not feel. 

“My name is Kara Dawson. I’m a CIA agent, and this is  _ my _ trap.”

Mick looked at her with a snide smile on his face, clearly not buying it.

She continued. “I don’t think you gentlemen realise the predicament that you’re in.” She walked back toward Rory. “You see, that phone call you made to the Nerd Herd? Yeah, we traced that. Your compound is currently surrounded by 23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, 7 heavy gunners, 4 demolitions experts, and enough ammunition to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger. You’re outmatched and you’re outgunned. Those pea-shooters you’re holding? They might as well be sharp sticks and strong language for all the good they’ll do you.”

Rory stared at her for a moment, then nodded to his men, urging a group of them to rush to the windows to look for the supposed tactical assault team that was lying in wait.

“Nothing there, boss,” said one thug.

“Looks clear,” said another.

Rory laughed and shook his finger at Kara as if to say ‘oh  _ you _ !’

“Goodbye, Kara.” He took a step toward her.

“Of course you don’t see anyone! Who do you think we are, the FBI? No, the only thing you’re going to see is a muzzle flash, followed by a one-way ticket straight to hell. So why don’t you make the smart choice, and hand over the Cypher.”

Rory glared at her, cracked his knuckles, and stepped directly into her space.

“Wait, wait, wait!” She pulled out her cellphone and dialed Winn. “I think that you might want to hear this.”

_ “Hey Kara!” _

“Hey Winn!” She looked directly into Rory’s eyes. “Winn, I’d like you to tell me the exact specs for the team surrounding the compound.”

_ “The whole shebang?!” _

“The whole shebang.”

_ “Yes ma’am! We have 23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, 7 heavy gunners, 4 demolitions experts. I should tell you, I got a little impatient and took out one of the sentries. Don’t worry though, it was a headshot, he couldn’t warn his buddies. It was awesome, man, you should have seen it! His head exploded like a watermelon!” _

“Thanks Winn,” replied Kara, ending the call.

“They must have got Snart,” said one of the thugs, still checking out the window. “I thought he was in the bathroom.”

Kara and Mick stood face to face, Mick clearly trying to discern whether Kara was telling the truth or not. Kara stared him down, trying not to let her fear show through.

“One more time,” she said, “give up.”

Rory stared at her for a moment longer, then brushed past her to the window. “She’s either lying, or she’s crazy! Check everywhere! Don’t let anything get past you!”

Kara took the opportunity to grab the Cypher from the case where she had spotted it earlier and high-tailed it out of the room with all the thugs. She sprinted through the warehouse, taking stairs two at a time, hurdling over barrels of chemicals, spools of wire, and piles of plywood. She turned back to see if she was being followed and, finding no one, turned to face forward again, nearly running square into Rory.

“Oh god!” She shouted. “I mean, uh...don’t move! ...Please?”

Rory smirked and shoved her back through a window and out onto the roof. She lay on the ground coughing, the wind having been knocked out of her. She could feel shards of glass stabbing her in the back.

Mick stepped out through the window. Kara tried to crawl backwards over the broken glass, but he was too fast, and he quickly grabbed her foot and dragged her across the roof toward the edge. 

She soon found herself in the same predicament that she had been in only two nights ago. Dangling by her legs off the side of a building, blood rushing to her head.

“Hand it over,” Rory commanded.

“What will you do if I give it to you?”

“To be honest, I’m gonna drop you,” Rory replied.

“No no no no! See, th--this is what I’m talking about. We’ve got to work on your negotiating skills! How about this? How about you pull me back up, and we discuss this like two rational adults!”

He sighed, “You know what?”

“What?”

He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a shout of, “ _ Freeze!” _

It was Lena! Kara felt a burst of joy. Lena was here, she was safe!

Mick turned back to her. “It’s not worth it.” 

He let go of Kara.

Lena let out a bloodcurdling cry of  _ “Nooooo!!!” _

Rory turned back to her. Lena was hyperventilating. This wasn’t real, Kara couldn’t be dead. She felt a sob bubble up and escape from her throat, tears burning hot in her eyes. 

“Your girlfriend’s dead sweetheart, whatcha gonna do?” 

She felt a burning rage overtake her senses and she screamed in agony. He ran at her and knocked the gun out of her hand as she raised it, punching her in the stomach. She threw punch after punch at him, but he blocked them one by one, the difference in size and strength between them making itself apparent.

Lena managed to land a couple good kicks, but soon he had one of her arms pinned to her side, as he grabbed her throat with his free hand, lifting her clear off the ground. He began to squeeze, cutting off her air supply. She had a sudden, wry thought that things weren't looking too good for Team Danvers, before her vision began to go cloudy.

***

Kara was falling. This was it. This was how she died. Thrown off the side of a building in an attempt to recover an important piece of intelligence. She wondered, briefly, as she fell, if anyone would ever know what she’d done for her country. Who she had become. The lives she had saved. Or would it be swept under the rug and treated as an unfortunate accident? What would Alex think? 

A million thoughts flashed through her mind as she fell toward certain death, until a black clothed figure appeared in her peripheral vision, thrusting out a hand for her to grab.

It was Hank! He was moving up the fire escape outside of the building. She reached out and gripped his hand tightly, his tactical gloves scraping across her palm. Her fall was stopped suddenly and she felt her arm nearly yank out of its socket as her back slammed into the side of the fire stairs. Her hand slipped out of his grasp and she fell onto the level below him.

She stood up, panting, and looked up at Hank. “You--you--”

“Yeah yeah, I catch you when you fall, it’s touching, really.”

“N-no, no, I--I love you--” Kara stammered out, gratefully.

“Keep it in your pants, Danvers! Now get downstairs!” He turned and raced up to the roof.

***

With her last bit of consciousness, Lena brought her legs up and hooked them around Rory's neck, squeezing his head between her thighs, making him lose his grip on her. They both fell to the ground. He scrambled to his feet and Lena took the opportunity to scissor kick his legs apart before slamming a booted foot into his knee, bringing him to the ground.

Hank climbed over the edge of the roof and brought his rifle up to point it at Rory. “Alright, enough with the foreplay, step away from the girl.”

Mick chuckled. “You know you gotta put that gun down, because you’re surrounded.” His men began filtering onto the roof with them, guns raised and pointed at Henshaw. "Let me introduce you to the rest of my men." He gestured to the thugs surrounding them. 

The door to the roof opened again and Kara burst out, followed by a full scale tactical assault team. Lena caught sight of her and dropped to her knees in relief.

“Excuse me, hi!” Kara made her way over to the bunch. “Sorry to interrupt whatever’s going on here, but Mr. Rory, I just wanted you to meet  _ my  _ team.” She gestured around to the assault team, who were relieving Rory’s men of their firearms. “Tell me something, do you find them imposing,” she asked with a smirk, “Go ahead, you can be honest. I was going for imposing.”

“Kara,” Lena breathed out, standing shakily and making her way over to the blonde to pull her into a tight hug. Kara could feel the relief rolling off of her in waves. 

“Hey, hey, don’t worry, I’m fine,” she replied with a warm smile. 

Lena pulled back and stared up at her. Her hands were shaking and she was fighting the tears that were aching to fall. She had almost lost Kara. She surged up and placed a hard kiss on Kara's lips. She pulled away before Kara could deepen the kiss and tried to get herself back in check. “Do you have the Cypher? Please tell me you have it.”

Kara pulled it out of her pocket with a grin. “Of course I have it, it’s me!”

Hank was cuffing Rory when the thug laughed. “Your boss, Dawson, she’s good.”

Hank rolled his eyes and groaned quietly.

***

Later that night, Hank was trimming his bonsai tree when the sound of a throat clearing made him whip his head toward the monitor, where General Haley was apparently waiting.

“Major Henshaw, I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said with an amused tone.

He glanced down at the tree, where he had accidentally snipped off an entire branch in his surprise at the interruption. He closed his eyes and tried to center himself.  _ It was FINE. It’s just a tree. _

He turned back to the general. “The new Intersect ready?”

“We’re minutes away,” she replied.

“Which means…?”

“Your order remains the same. Kara Danvers is to be eliminated.”

He grunted out a dejected sigh. 

“What was that, Henshaw?”

“Nothing, General.” He paused. “It’s just--Kara served her country with honour. Maybe she even has potential as an analyst for the organisation.”

General Haley sighed. “I understand the--”

“Let me, General,” Marsdin cut in, moving into the frame with Haley. “Major Henshaw, can you extract these secrets from Ms. Danvers’ head? Can you guarantee her safety from kidnapping, from torture?”

“No,” Hank said quietly.

“Then it’s clear,” Marsdin continued. “Kara Danvers has served her country with honour. Now she’ll die with honour.”

She ended the transmission, leaving Henshaw in darkness, staring at the black screen.

***

“Are you sure you can handle this, Kara?” Alex leaned against the counter next to her.

“Yeah! I’ve got this. Plus I’ve been wanting to cook Lena dinner for awhile, so…”

Alex grimaced. “Kara, you are a woman of many talents, but the kitchen is not one of them.”

Kara looked at her with a dorky smile. “ _ Hello _ , that’s why they call it Hamburger  _ Helper _ ! It does most of the heavy lifting for you.”

Alex chuckled at her antics. Kara smiled back. “No, but seriously, I’m making that chicken with balsamic glaze--the one thing Jeremiah taught me how to make.”

Alex narrowed her eyes. “Kara, Dad couldn’t cook either.” She grabbed her arms. “ _ Please  _ let me help you.” 

Kara threw her head back and laughed. “I’ll be  _ fine _ , Alex. Go enjoy your date night with Kelly. Everything will be fine.”

Alex gave her one last look on the way out of the kitchen. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Go!” She smiled at her overprotective sister. She knew that Alex just wanted to help, wanted things to go well between her and Lena. And for once, she felt like they actually might.

***

Deep in the bowels of the DNI building, two techs began initialising the final setup of the new Intersect. They placed the Cypher into the drive, the final piece in an intelligence puzzle.

Marsdin entered the Intersect room, followed by half a dozen agents. She looked around the room, at the monitors covering the walls.

As the techs finished the initialisation and left the room, she turned to the agents behind her. 

“Well, this is it. You all have been chosen to be hosts for this project based on your evaluations. You’re the best in your fields, but after tonight, you’ll be even better. Your nation thanks you.”

She turned back to the computer and typed in her verification code, booting up the Intersect. The Cypher began to spin and the monitors all began to light up. She put on her safety glasses to prevent herself from seeing the encoded secrets within the images. 

Pictures began flashing across the screens, but almost immediately they began to fritz, the monitors turning snowy. She furrowed her brow and looked at the computer screen, the Cypher spinning wildly in it’s drive next to it. It suddenly stopped spinning and began to glow red.

The last thing she saw before the whole room exploded was a message that flashed across the screen:

**_LEVIATHAN THANKS YOU._ **

_ *** _

Hank stole into Kara’s room through her unlocked window. He had the thought that he’d have to reprimand her for that, but he realised quickly that a few moments from now, that wouldn’t matter. He made his way silently through the apartment, creeping along the hallway, a silenced pistol raised to chin level. 

He could hear Kara murmuring to herself in the dining room as she uncorked a bottle of wine. 

“So, Lena, what do you think about Europe? You, me, a little flat in Amsterdam?” 

He peeked around the corner and saw her trying to casually lean on the table, as she pretended she was speaking with Lena, but she nearly missed the table entirely. He fought the urge to snicker, but the solemnity of the moment caught up to him. It wasn’t fair. Kara shouldn’t have to die, but orders were orders, and what kind of agent was he if he didn’t follow orders?

He was just about to step out to take the shot when the doorbell rang. He ducked back into the bathroom off the hallway and peeked around the frame. 

Kara strode over to the door and pulled it open with a smile. “Lena.”

Lena stepped inside and closed the door. “Kara, we have to cancel the date tonight. The Intersect was destroyed.”

Hank’s eyes widened.

“What?!” Kara exclaimed, “But...the Cypher--”

“It was a trojan horse. A sabotage device. The moment it came online, it exploded.”

Kara stared at her for a moment before closing her eyes and sighing deeply. 

“That means--”

“You’re still the only Intersect,” Lena finished for her. “I’m sorry, Kara.”

Hank took the opportunity to steal back out through Kara’s room before the pair came looking for him. On one hand, he was relieved that he did not have to go through with assassinating Kara, but on the other, he felt for the nerd, who had been so desperate to escape her situation.

***

The following day, Kara found herself back at the Nerd Herd, sitting behind her desk, staring into space. She’d been so close, so close to freedom. And someone had taken it from her. She had seen the trajectory her life could be on if she got out of this hell, and now it had all been ripped away. 

“Hey buddy, how’s it going?” Winn came bounding behind the desk and dropped into the chair next to her.

“How’s it going? Oof, well that’s a great, great question,” she replied sardonically. “I’ll tell you what, buddy, I just had a vision of the rest of my life. And you know what? It takes place in the same outfit,” she gestured to her Nerd Herd uniform, “behind the same desk, in the same store.” She sighed dejectedly.

Winn clicked a pen furiously and leaned toward her. “I see. Come on, talk to Dr. Schott, tell me what’s troubling you.”

Kara shot him a look that said ‘ _ really?’ _

“It’s safe,” he said, his voice calm and clinical, “go ahead.”

She sighed. “I just thought that my life would be going somewhere, you know? Not just metaphysically or spiritually, though that too, but literally. I want out of National City, you know? I want to get out, away from here, to--”

“Midvale,” Winn chimed in sarcastically, referring to the small town an hour away. 

Kara laughed. Winn always knew what to say to cheer her up. He smiled and scooted closer to her. 

“Alright listen to me,” he began, his tone uncharacteristically serious, “in all honesty, and I hope you know this, I’ve always been of the mind that you are destined for great things. Whatever you want to do, you can do, you know? Senator, President, Emperor of the Known Universe, whatever. You understand?”

Kara nodded and gave him a small smile.

“But!” He raised a finger in her face. “Before you go running off to change the world, I think I should tell you that I’m currently on my way to securing 45 Twinkies. By which, I mean 45  _ bags _ of Twinkies.”

Kara furrowed her brow. “Why would you do that?”

“Good question. Because Brainy said he’d eat all of them in under  _ 3 minutes _ . Now, he thinks he’s eating 45, but technically speaking, he agreed to eat 90.”

Kara shot up out of her chair, a look of disbelief on her face. “90?”

“Yeah,” Winn whispered, a maniacal smile spreading across his face.

“Nobody can eat 90 Twinkies,” Kara whispered.

“That’s what I said, dude! He may die! Or--or at least do extreme damage to several major organs!”

Kara paused. “This I have to see.” She climbed over the desk and hurried after Winn.

They passed Hank on their way to the breakroom.

“Hey! Hank! 90 Twinkies in 3 minutes, be there!”

Winn shouted over his shoulder as he headed to the back. “Brainy might die!”

Hank furrowed his brow, then a smile crept over his face and he ran down the hallway after the pair. 

Kara grinned and followed them into the breakroom, where a crowd of Nerd herd employees had already begun to gather to witness Brainy’s impending gastric doom. As Winn began to take bets on how much Brainy could actually eat, she couldn’t help but smile. Things may not have worked out how she wanted them to, but life wasn’t all bad. She’d just have to make the best of what she had and deal with whatever came next as it happened. She had her friends, her family, and Lena. For right now, maybe that was enough. 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can thank @josiluthor on twitter for the little kisses that yall got in this chapter. I wasn't gonna put them, but she demanded kisses and I can't say no to her. Love you Stinkey!! 🤩
> 
> Anyway, if you're a jealous!Lena stan, yall are gonna get fed REAL soon. 😏
> 
> Hope you're enjoying this. Be sure to drop a comment and come scream at me on the twitter @magnum_dorkus 
> 
> Thanks for reading!! ❤💙


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara deals with the fact that she's still the Intersect. Someone from her past returns and complicates things with Lena.

“I don’t get it,” said Kara, slamming the door to the Herder, “this time today, I was supposed to be a free woman. No more Intersect, possibly reclining on a beach with a Piña Colada and some undisclosed companion, maybe. What the hell happened?”

Hank closed his door and began walking toward the Nerd Herd with Kara. They’d begun carpooling to work as an extra precaution to keep Kara safe (and to be good to the environment!) and now Kara’s entire day was filled with Hank Henshaw. Why couldn’t they have placed Lena at her job?

“It’s technical,” was all Hank said.

“Well, if it’s a computer malfunction, maybe I can help! I mean, that’s kinda my department!”

Hank stopped walking and turned to face her, his jaw set. “It exploded into a million little pieces and took Director Marsdin with it. You want to help? Better get yourself a bucket and a mop.” He turned away and began walking again.

Kara stood still for a moment, in shock. Then she rushed forward and grabbed Henshaw’s arm. “Wait, wait, wait. Marsdin is dead?”

“Yeah,” said Henshaw, as if this was obvious, “we’re playing for keeps here, Kara.” He yanked his arm away from her and kept walking.

“Well,” Kara began tentatively, “at the risk of sounding callous, where does that leave us with the new Intersect?”

“If I were you, I’d get used to working at the Nerd Herd. You ain’t leaving here any time soon.”

She sighed and pushed her way through the door. She internally berated herself for getting so enthusiastic about being finished with the spy life. More than that, she’d allowed Alex to get all worked up about it, and now she’d have to disappoint her sister _again_ when she told her that she wasn’t going to be moving on from the Nerd Herd. 

As soon as she clocked in, it felt like the universe was trying to remind her of the mundane, ignorant existence she was resigned to. She dealt with customer after customer with stupid question after stupid question. Normally, she was the epitome of the customer service representative, but today it was taking everything inside of her not to snap at them.

During a lull in the day, Winn came up to her and she couldn’t help but unload on him. “I can’t believe that this is going to be my life.” She turned to him with a forlorn look. “Do you remember when I actually had potential?”

He clapped her on the back with a grin. “Are you kidding me? Yeah! You were _bursting_ with it! Man, I’m glad that’s over with.”

Kara shot him a derisive look. He laughed and punched her arm. “I’m kidding, dude. We all know you’re going to go on to do great things. But in the meantime, just remember, no matter how bad your life gets...you get to go home to _that_!”

Kara looked up to see what he was talking about and saw Lena enter the store and look around for her. The weather had gotten cooler as the holiday season approached, and this meant that Lena had taken to wearing jeans-- _tight_ jeans. Today’s pair looked as if they had been painted on and it was paired with a soft green V-neck sweater that showed off her spectacular collarbones and brought out her eyes, and a pair of black Converses--an example of Kara’s influence on her. She smiled at the thought.

Kara swallowed as the agent spotted her and gave her a soft smile and wave, her sleeves pulled down slightly over her hands. She gave a small wave back and made her way around the desk to meet her. As she stepped into Lena’s space, she was greeted with a soft warm kiss, just a gentle press of the lips, but one more intimate than the cover kisses she was used to.

“Is that, um--is that a cover kiss or a real kiss, because I’m confused right now,” she asked, her brain still feeling a little fuzzy from the kiss.

“It’s a ‘we’re in the midst of a national security emergency and I need to speak with you privately’ kiss,” she replied with a smirk.

“See, I knew I felt something,” Kara joked as Lena pulled her across the store and toward the home theatre room. Lena closed the door behind them and Kara reached out and took Lena’s hand.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we blow off this whole national security emergency thing and go down to Mexico for a couple of days? I’ll get the daiquiris if the CIA picks up the plane tickets! Coach is fine with me!” She shot Lena what she hoped was a charming grin. 

Lena turned back to her and smiled, but it didn’t meet her eyes, which were practically brimming with sadness. “Kara, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about." She paused, twisting her fingers anxiously. "I’m sorry, but we can’t be together anymore. It’s unprofessional. It was different when I thought you were no longer going to be my asset, but now it’s too dangerous.”

Kara frowned, a crinkle appearing between her brows. “Well--hey, correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you with James when you guys were working together?”

Lena sighed. “There’s a difference. James was a spy. You’re my asset. It’s my job to protect you. If I become romantically involved with you, it could compromise your safety and my ability to protect you. It’s not safe for us to be together anymore. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to be like this.”

Kara nodded. She knew it really wasn’t Lena’s fault, but she couldn’t help but feel a little irritated, like she was being jerked around. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m not a real spy. And I’m not cut out for this adrenaline pumping, chase the bad guy, risk-life-and-limb-daily existence. So whatever the next national security issue is, maybe you and Hank should handle it yourselves.”

Lena reached out and gently held her wrist. “Kara, wait. Listen, I know that this is all a lot, okay? I know how hard this is on you, and believe me, I wish there was something I could do to make it easier for you. But the sooner we get the _real_ Cypher back, the sooner you can get the Intersect removed, and the sooner you can be free to live whatever life you choose, with _whomever_ you choose.” 

Kara lifted her head and stared at Lena, wondering if Lena was saying what she thought she was saying.

“What are you saying, Lena?”

“I’m saying that...you can have everything you’ve always wanted,” said Lena, gazing into her eyes, soft and unblinking. Kara gave her a soft smile in return. “Okay, fine.”

***

Kara sat behind the Nerd Herd desk, mulling over what Lena had said. She understood, of course. But that didn’t really help. She wanted to be with Lena, and she’d gotten so close, only to have it snatched away, just like her bright future. But then there was that _other_ part. The part where Lena had essentially said that when this was all over, they could be together. It gave Kara a bit of hope...but that was a long way off. It had taken nearly six months to get this latest Intersect up and running, and it would likely take another six months to rebuild it all over again. Would Lena wait that long? Could Kara? 

She was pulled from her reverie by Winn handing her an offsite install. She sighed and gathered her keys and paperwork before heading out to the conference center listed on the work order.

Upon her arrival, she was shown to a small table where lecturers were meant to check in. As she worked, she tried to make small talk with the event organiser who was standing at the table, handing out name tags and brochures, and directing people where to go.

“So, a bioscience conference. Bet things get pretty crazy here,” she said with a laugh.

The event organiser gave her a blank look. Kara cleared her throat. “Alrighty then. So, the network is all set up, with ten-based T ethernet connecting all the servers for the conference with the firewall in place.” She looked up and a woman entering the conference center caught her eye.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes nearly popped out of her head, her heart racing and palms sweating. _Lucy Lane._ She looked incredible, even better than she had in college. She was wearing a tasteful skirt suit and heels, and her dark hair was flowing as if there was a fan blowing just for her. Kara watched her greet a fellow attendee, smiling and laughing, her eyes crinkling in the corners. 

As she began moving closer to the sign-in table, Kara dropped to the floor and scurried under the table, protected from sight by the tablecloth hanging over the side. The event organiser stared down at her with a bewildered look on his face.

“Is there a problem,” he asked.

“Can you tell me if the attractive, green-eyed, slightly egg-headed brunette with an extremely cold heart is still here?”

The man looked up at the room and immediately zeroed in on Lucy. She was the most attractive woman in the room, so it wasn’t hard to find her.

“Yeah, she’s here. Why? Who is she?”

“Lucy Lane, my heartless ex-girlfriend. She broke my heart,” she offered, as a way of an explanation for why she was hiding under the table from the woman. “Uhh...I need--I need a diversion. Would it be a terrible imposition for you to pull the fire alarm?” She tried to laugh lightly, to pass it off as a joke, but she honestly didn't know if it was or not. 

“Hi,” a female voice sounded from above the table, directing the organiser’s attention back above the table, “I’m Dr. Lane. Is there someone who can help me with the tech requirements for my lecture?”

Kara stared at the heels in front of her that belonged to the woman that had completely shattered her heart, and she prayed that the event coordinator dude would be cool.

“Yeah, under the table,” said the organiser. 

_Traitor!_

She quickly began fiddling with the modem sitting next to her, so it wouldn’t look as if she had been hiding. The tablecloth lifted and Lucy’s beautiful face appeared below it. She pretended not to notice. 

“Kara?”

She lifted her head and immediately slammed it into the bottom of the table, stars filling her vision. She gasped in pain and then scurried out from under the table, shooting a murderous look at the event organiser. He merely smirked and stepped away.

“Kara Danvers, is that really you?” Lucy was smiling brightly, eyes shining with recognition.

Kara took a breath before speaking, trying to play it cool. She quickly grabbed her Nerd Herd I.D. off her shirt and tossed it into her toolbox.

“Present, yes, that’s me!”

“It’s me! Lucy!”

“Lucy! Oh my gosh, of course!”

Lucy reached over the table and pulled her into a short awkward hug as they exchanged a few hi’s and hellos.

“Hey...you,” Kara said, trying to feign more excitement than she felt, “how are you? It’s so---so good to see you!”

“You too! Gosh, how long has it been?”

“Five years, four months-ish,” said Kara immediately, before dialing it back, “Give or take, kind of, you know---in that neighbourhood. Uh...what have you been up to?”

“Oh, well after NCU, I got my PhD in biomedical engineering and now I’m giving a presentation to the conference on infectious diseases!”

“Lovely,” Kara quipped with a smile.

“And you?”

Kara froze for a second. Here she was, Lucy Lane, the one that got away. Was she really going to tell her that she’d been working at a Nerd Herd since college? In a moment of what she would later deem insanity, she decided to lie.

“Still in the computer game, you know, I--I--uh, I work at/own my own little company. Six--teen, seventeen stores. I can never remember which,” she gave a light laugh, “but sometimes I still like to get my hands dirty, you know? Don the old uniform and do some installs myself. Keeps me on my toes!”

Lucy smiled widely at her. “I’m really happy for you, Kara! The last time I saw you, you were working at...what was it...a Nerd Herd?”

Kara laughed anxiously, and a bit too loudly. “Yes! Yeah, that was a wonderful, wonderful growing experience, really character building...wouldn’t--wouldn’t change it for the world,” she finished quietly.

“Well,” Lucy began, eyes tracing all over Kara’s face and down her body, “there’s definitely some things I would change. Especially about us.”

Kara raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth to speak when a man appeared at Lucy’s side. 

“There you are! We’re running late!” A tall, thin, balding man appeared at her side and urged her toward the door.

“Oh, hi Thomas. This is an old friend of mine, Kara Danvers. Kara, this is my boss, Dr. Thomas Morrow.”

Kara threw out a hand to shake. “Hi! Nice to meet you.”

The doctor lifted his hands in front of him and grimaced at Kara’s outstretched palm. “I work with germs so, you know…” 

Whatever else he may have said was missed by Kara, because as soon as the man began speaking, she flashed on him. A whole host of images of different chemicals, laboratory experiments, and an image of a morgue stacked with bodies covered in sheets flickered through her mind. 

“I’m sure your friend is busy,” said Morrow, as Kara came out of her reverie, “Computers to fix and all that...shall we?” He offered her his arm and turned toward the door once more.

“Sure,” said Lucy, taking the proffered arm. Kara gave a small wave as Lucy walked away and looked down at the table, willing herself to forget the awkward exchange with her ex and focus on the fact that her ex’s boss was a potential bioterrorist.

“Kara!” 

She snapped her head up and saw Lucy waving at her over her shoulder. She smiled and waved back.

“I’m staying at the Hotel Waldron, so give me a call if you want to grab a cup of coffee,” she gave her a shy smile.

“Y-yeah! Well, you know, I stay pretty busy so…,” Kara shouted after her, “I’ll check with my people!”

Lucy and Dr. Morrow had already rounded the corner. Kara sighed and dropped her head backwards. Why was her life like this?

***

“Your ex-girlfriend’s boss, Dr. Thomas Morrow, is the head research scientist for the US-based company Cole-McGregor Pharmaceuticals,” said General Haley. Kara, Lena, and Hank were in the base under the Wienerlicious. Kara had relayed her flash to Hank, who promptly called the General to inform her of the situation. “Homeland Security reports that he _may_ have developed a bioweapon, which he plans to sell to the highest bidder.” 

“Is Lucy involved?” Kara asked quietly. She wasn’t sure she could handle it if the answer was yes.

“It’s your job to find out, Kara,” Haley responded. “Hank and Lena will surveil Dr. Morrow. We need you to reconnect with Lucy, find out what she knows about her boss.”

Kara’s eyes widened and, though her mouth opened, her jaw worked with no words coming out. Haley stared at her, waiting for an answer.

“Right...right,” Kara swallowed harshly. “When--when you say ‘reconnect’ with her, you mean send her an email, or invite her to follow me on Snapchat, right?”

“Call her at her hotel and make a date, Kara,” Haley ordered gruffly. “See if you flash on anything she says, or anyone you meet.”

“I’m s--I’m sorry, a _date_ ? With my _ex_ ?” Kara stood up quickly from her chair and moved around the front of the table to be closer to the monitor. “No, General, that is a _terrible_ idea! You see, she broke my heart, okay? She destroyed me! She took all of my confidence--my mojo--”

“ _You_ had mojo?” Hank sneered.

“I was on my way! Oh and by the way, she slept with James Olsen!”

Hank grunted out a laugh. “Who hasn’t,” he quipped, shooting a smirk at Lena, who rolled her eyes. She moved from her position leaning on the table and moved next to Kara and spoke softly.

“Look Kara, I know that Lucy hurt you, but maybe seeing her again will give you the closure that you’ve always wanted.” She rubbed Kara’s shoulder in a soothing manner. “You’ve done a lot for this country, and now we’re going to make you look good, okay?”

“And look on the bright side,” said Hank, “now you can get your mojo back!” He sneered at Kara and slapped her cheek twice as he walked by. Having given them their assignment, Haley signed off.

Kara stood staring at the picture of Lucy that was up on the screen, and remembered the last time she had seen her. 

It was 5 years ago. She had been expelled and Lucy had promptly stopped replying to her messages. She’d begun working at Nerd Herd and one day on her lunch break, sick of the radio silence, she had driven over to the campus dorms to see her, but since she no longer had a functioning school ID, she couldn’t get into the building. She had literally thrown rocks at Lucy’s window until she opened it. Only Lucy hadn’t opened it, it was her roommate who hated Kara for some reason. She had yelled that Lucy didn’t want to see her, but Kara had basically begged so hard that she’d finally come to the window, only to tell her that it was over. Kara had asked her to come down so they could talk about this properly, maybe over coffee? when the roommate had shouted down that Lucy was seeing James now. Kara had felt her heart shatter. All Lucy said before closing the window was, “I’m sorry, Kara.” 

That was five years ago. Now, she was going to have to go to dinner with her and pretend that everything was fine, that she wasn’t bitter or heartbroken, that she was a successful computer magnate, and on top of all that, try to press her for information about her bioterrorist boss. 

She felt her heart begin to race and her palms get clammy. A slap on her back brought her back to the present. 

“Let’s go Romeo! Time to get ready for your big date,” said Hank. “The CIA is wasting a lot of tax dollars to make you look good.”

_Here goes nothing_ , Kara thought with a hefty sigh. She prayed this evening would end well.

***

Kara pulled on her blazer and checked herself out in the mirror. She was shocked. She looked _good._ The CIA had outdone themselves, she thought, staring at her reflection. It was a slim cut silk suit, with an auburn floral print that contrasted nicely with her eyes. She’d paired it with a dark red lipstick that popped against the crisp white shirt underneath. The pants were skinny cut and rose just above her ankles, showing off her shiny black brogues. Her hair hung in loose waves over her shoulders, and she added just a hint of mascara, keeping the makeup to a minimum for a more natural look. 

Admiring herself in the mirror, she hoped the CIA bankrolled more missions in the future.

She fixed her watch to her wrist and moved quietly through the apartment, hoping to avoid Alex and Kelly. She hadn’t told them about Lucy, but she couldn’t imagine they’d be happy about her going to dinner with her. Not that she really had a choice. But Alex had picked her up time after time while she’d been heartbroken over Lucy. It seemed only natural that she’d develop a bad taste for the woman.

She crept through the living room just as the front door opened. _Alex. Shit._

“Hey! New suit? You have a big date?”

“No big date,” Kara said quickly. “Why?”

“It looks expensive,” Alex said with a smile.

“No! Very--very cheap! It was on sale, I had a coupon!”

“Mmhmm,” said Alex, smirking at her sister’s ramble, “I think it’s cute you get all dressed up for Lena. She’s lucky!” She dropped her keys in the dish by the door and walked across the room. Kara scrunched her eyes closed. She couldn’t lie to Alex. Not about this.

“Hey sis?” She waited for Alex to acknowledge her. “You ever think about your ex, Maggie?”

Alex gave her a puzzled look. “No, why?”

“Well, let’s say, totally randomly, good ol’ Maggie--you know, you guys ran into each other and she asked you out to dinner to catch up with each other--reminisce about old times, what would you say?”

“I guess...theoretically I’d say yes,” said Alex with a furrowed brow and a suspicious look on her face. 

Kara sighed and her shoulders dropped in relief. “I am so glad that you said that,” she said quickly. “I’m--I’m not going out with Lena tonight. I’m actually going out...with Lucy.”

Alex’s eyes flew open wide and she immediately crossed her arms over her chest. “ _LUCY?!_ No! NO! No no no! _Absolutely not!_ ”

Kara furrowed her brow in confusion. “Wh--what about what you just said about Maggie?”

“Just forget what I said, okay? There is _no_ scenario in which you should be going to dinner with the girl that dumped you, broke your heart, and slept with your best friend!” She moved across the room to stand in front of Kara. She looked at her suit again and then looked up to her face, a pained look on her face. “Kara...you bought a new suit for her?”

“I told you...coupon…” said Kara, her voice small.

“Kara…” Alex closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “I’m trying not to be the overprotective big sister--”

“You? _Never_.” Kara said with a laugh.

“It’s just that,” she continued, “I know that she hurt you. You know? I don’t want to see you go through that again.” She lifted her hands as if to say ‘I surrender’. “But…” she motioned zipping her lips and tossing the key. She turned and walked down the hallway without another word. 

Kara stood there for a moment, disappointed in her sister’s reaction, but not entirely surprised. All things considered, this was probably the best she could hope for. She took a deep breath and blew it out before walking out the door.

***

Kara walked out through the courtyard to the street where she normally parked the Nerd Herder and found a sleek black Ferrari 488 Spyder in its place instead. She whipped her head around, looking for the Civic before pulling out her phone and calling Lena.

“Heyyyy,” she began when Lena answered the phone. “Um. Where’s my car?”

_“The Ferrari is yours for the night, Kara. I told you the CIA was going to make you look good.”_

Kara stared at the fancy sports car in front of her before pulling the door open.

_“The keys are in the ignition. Don’t worry about tonight. Hank and I will be close by. Just have fun and try to get the answers we need.”_

Kara thanked her and hung up the phone, sliding into the driver’s seat and running her hands over the fine handstitching on the steering wheel. She started the engine and it purred to life. She grinned as a fire began to stoke itself in her blood. She could really get used to this. She took a minute to familiarise herself with the car and its gears before shooting a text to Lucy that she was on her way. Then she pulled away from the curb and shot off into the night.

***

Kara pulled up to the valet stand at the restaurant and hopped out, tossing the keys to the young man, before making her way around the car and opening Lucy’s door for her. She led her to the entrance of the restaurant and pulled open the door. She was immediately greeted by Hank, who was wearing glasses. 

“Hey! Ms. Danvers! Welcome! Hope you haven’t been waiting long, right this way!”

“Thank you,” she responded, hoping her expression was not as bewildered as she felt.

He led them through the throng of people in the restaurant, where the customers nodded at her and raised their glasses, as if she was a regular at this particular venue. She nodded awkwardly at each as the did, trying to act like this was something that happened all the time.

Even the piano player smiled and winked at her. “Looking good Ms. Danvers, looking good!”

Kara smiled and slowly turned to Hank, speaking through her grimacing smile, “Is everyone in here CIA?”

“Of course,” he replied with a smirk. He led them to a table that was set in a secluded corner of the restaurant, lit by candles. She pulled out a chair for Lucy and slid it in under her before taking her seat across the small table. Hank handed them their menus and slipped away.

“Wow, I’m impressed,” said Lucy, a look of shock on her face. “It’s like you own this place!”

“No no, god no, just a--just an investor. I mean, what can I say, I’m a sucker for a good veal parm.” She grinned as their server approached the table. She did a double take as she looked up. It was Lena.

“Good evening, Ms. Danvers, can I get you two anything to drink? The usual, perhaps? A 2000 Les Fiefs de Legrange?”

Kara stared up at her blankly. She had no idea what it was, but if Lena was suggesting it, she should probably take it. She looked over at Lucy to make sure that was okay with her. She smiled back. Kara swallowed. “Uh...oui oui!” Lena nodded and walked away.

Lucy tilted her head and regarded Kara for a moment. “I’m really glad things turned out so well for you, Kara. Especially after--you know--what happened.”

Kara paused. She knew Lucy was referring to the allegations that she had stolen the tests in college. She wanted to tell Lucy the truth. She needed her to know that it wasn’t true. That she was set up. That she wasn’t a dishonest person, no matter how much lying she had been doing tonight. She licked her dry lips and sucked them into her mouth, her brow furrowing.

“Yeah...about that,” she began nervously, “Lucy, I never stole those tests.”

Lucy shook her head quickly. “Kara, that doesn’t matter now.”

Kara shifted uncomfortably. “Sure, it--it doesn’t matter _now._ Now that I drive a fine Italian automobile and I’m alarmingly well-known at this particular restaurant...but I needed you to believe me when it _did_ matter.”

“I _do_ believe you,” Lucy insisted. “And maybe I should have believed you at NCU but...the tests were in your room. And James said you were cheating. What was I supposed to think at the time?”

Kara looked away from Lucy, a soft rage boiling low in her belly. “Yeah. James must have made a very convincing argument for you to dump me and then hop right into his bed.” She turned back to look at Lucy, who had hurt and exasperation written all over her face.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” said Lucy. 

Lena appeared at the tableside. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Ms. Danvers, but there’s a phone call for you at the bar.”

Kara frowned up at her. Lena gave her a pointed look with an arched eyebrow before walking back to the bar. Kara excused herself from the table and followed her, picking up the phone that was set out for her on the marble bar top. Lena stood next to her, rolling silverware. _Wow, she really gets into character,_ Kara thought, placing the receiver to her ear. She noticed the dial tone on the other end and realised there was no call, that Lena wanted a word. She shifted her body so that she faced the agent.

“What do you think you’re doing,” asked Lena in a low tone, but nonetheless authoritative.

“Getting closure,” she responded, “she owes me an explanation.”

Hank appeared on the other side of the bar. “No she doesn’t. She exercised her first amendment right to dump you! Now get back in there and find out what Morrow is planning!” He turned and walked into the kitchen.

“Look, Kara,” Lena said softly, “I know it’s hard, but tonight you have to be a spy first.”

“Yeah, it is hard. I’m not like you, Lena, I can’t just turn my emotions on and off like some kind of robot!”

Lena said nothing, her face blank, revealing nothing about the way Kara’s words cut her.

Kara closed her eyes and sighed deeply. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. I’m not acting like myself tonight.” She put the phone back down in its cradle harshly.

Lena raised her head but did not look at the blonde. “Are you done feeling sorry for yourself?”

“Personally, I’d like another 10-15 minutes of really pathetic self-indulgence...but duty calls. I’m going back in.” She turned to Lena. “Thanks.”

Lena said nothing. 

Kara returned to the table with a smile to Lucy. “Sorry about that. No more interruptions, I promise. And uh, by the way...that woman that was just sitting here a couple of minutes ago? You remember her? Looked just like Kara Danvers? Was a little whiny and bitter?”

Lucy smiled at her across the table and raised her eyebrows.

“Turns out, she was an imposter,” Kara continued. 

“Really?” Lucy laughed.

“Yeah, really, but don’t worry about it, because I just kung fu’d her at the bar and she won’t be bothering you for the rest of the evening.”

Lucy tilted her head and smiled. “Well, I’m glad. Because I like this Kara Danvers a lot more.”

“Me too,” she said with a smile. 

***

“So, you never told me what you were working on,” Kara said as they left the restaurant. The rest of dinner had gone without incident and she had almost let herself slip back into the mindset that she’d been in 5 years ago. Being with Lucy just did that to her. She’d forgotten how sweet and beautiful she was, and how being with her felt like coming home to the smell of something your mom would make when you were a kid. She’d nearly forgotten that this was a mission.

“Oh, ah, I can’t really talk about it,” Lucy said with a dismissive wave.

Kara cocked her head. 

Lucy laughed. “That sounds mysterious, I know. It’s just...I’m starting to think there’s some sketchy people involved.” She shook her head, as if to shake the thoughts out of her mind. “I’m probably just being paranoid, I just don’t know who to trust.”

Kara lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug. “You can trust me,” she said with a smile.

Lucy looked up at her with a thoughtful expression for a moment. “Remember biochem? We’re working on a strain of influenza, specifically how the hemagglutinin protein fuses the viral envelope with the vacuole’s membrane.”

Kara nodded knowingly. “Ohhh.”

Lucy smiled up at her. “Did that sound like total gibberish?”

“I understood completely ‘do you remember biochem’ and then everything after that was a little fuzzy.”

Lucy laughed. “Okay, I’ll simplify.”

Just then a horn honked and a voice shouted out, “YOOOO DANVERS!!” Kara looked up to see Nia and Brainy pull up in one of the Nerd Herders and her face paled. Lucy turned to see what the commotion was.

“Hey buddy,” said Nia, hanging out of the passenger window.

“Who’s the babe?!” Brainy called from the driver’s seat.

Kara tried to motion for them to shut up, making the ‘zip your lips’ motion, followed by several cut it out hand movements at her neck. Of course, that didn’t stop them.

“First Lena, now this chiquita banana, when are you going to start sharing the wealth buddy?”

Kara leaned her head back and sighed. Lucy furrowed her brow and turned to her slowly. “Who’s Lena? And, um, are these friends of yours?”

“No,” Kara said, shaking her head, lips turned down in a frown. “Nope, just--just old Nerd Herd colleagues that haven’t moved on.” She turned back to the car and said through gritted teeth, “ _Move on! MOVE ON!_ ” She jerked her head toward the street to indicate where they needed to go.

The valet interrupted her seizure-like movements to hand her the keys to the Ferrari, and she thanked him in relief. With a little luck, she might just make it out of here unscathed.

But of course, fate was not that kind to her. 

“Whoa! Whose Ferrari?” Brainy called out in shock, as both he and Nia craned their necks to get a better view of the car parked behind them at the curb.

“This isn’t your car?” Lucy asked with a furrowed brow.

“Um, she makes $15 an hour at the Nerd Herd,” Nia answered, “you do the math, sister.”

Lucy turned back to Kara. “You still work at the Nerd Herd, Kara?”

Kara inhaled sharply as he shot daggers at Nia and Brainy, who realised their mistake and pulled away from the curb and up the street.

“Yes I do,” Kara admitted, shoulders dropping in despair.

“What about your computer business?”

“Technically the Nerd Herd offers a wide range of hardware and other things…” she trailed off as Lucy walked away, rolling her eyes and raising her arm to hail a cab.

“Wow, too bad NCU doesn’t over a B.A. in BS, ‘cause you could’ve graduated early!” 

“Lucy, please don’t--it’s not all a lie, I can explain!”

The cab door slammed shut and Kara was left alone in the street.

***

Kara sat at the table the next morning chewing dejectedly on a bowl of Froot Loops when Alex came striding into the kitchen to grab her coffee. Kara didn’t acknowledge her presence. She wasn’t sure she was ready for an I told you so from her older sister.

Alex cleared her throat. “So...am I supposed to ignore you? Or can I ask you a series of personal questions that you have to answer?” She grinned as she reached into the fridge for the creamer.

“You were right,” said Kara flatly, “You’re always right. I never should have gone out with Lucy last night.”

“Kara,” Alex sighed, “maybe I overreacted, you know? Maybe there was a reason for you to go to dinner with Lucy.”

“Yeah, to humiliate myself,” said Kara through a mouthful of Froot Loops.

“Come on, with the way things ended between you guys? You’ve always had millions of questions and no answers, and now you finally got some!”

“So what! What good did it do me to go poking around in my past?”

“Because,” Alex said, coming to stand next to her, leaning against the counter, “maybe now, without all that wondering and what if-ing, you can finally close that chapter of your life.”

Kara sat quietly for a moment, pondering Alex’s words. Then she huffed out a small laugh. “Right again.”

Alex smiled and kissed her on top of her head, leaving the kitchen.

***

Lena sat in the surveillance van outside of the Hotel Waldron making notes on what they picked up through the bug planted in Dr. Morrow’s room.

“He just ordered room service,” she said to Hank, who merely grunted in return.

Suddenly the rear doors to the van flew open and she and Hank turned to the intruder, guns raised. 

It was only Kara. She sighed and lowered her gun, though not a small part of her was happy to see her.

“Easy, I come in peace,” Kara joked, raising her hands in surrender. She climbed into the van and closed the door behind her.

“What the hell are you doing here,” Hank growled.

“I don’t know, I just figured I’d swing by and check up on Lucy.”

“She’s fine, Kara. She came home last night and she hasn’t left her room since.” She felt a little annoyed that Kara was here to check on Lucy, and she hated herself for it. _She_ had done this. _She_ was the one who said that they couldn’t be together. She had no right to be jealous or irritated.

The sound of a call being placed pulled her out of her thoughts. Hank lifted the head set to his ear. “She’s making a call!”

Lena pressed a button on the control panel and the sound was broadcast through the speakers. The conversation was crackly and broken up, like the bug was out of range or something.

“Damn bug’s on the fritz,” Hank said, tossing the headset onto the table.

“We need a new one,” said Lena, grabbing one out of the drawer. “I’ll go in as housekeeping and plant another.”

“She might recognise you as the waitress,” said Hank, thoughtfully. “I’ll just tranq her, she’ll wake up in an hour thinking nothing of it.” 

Kara stared at him in horror as he spoke so casually of tranquilising Lucy. “Whoa whoa, wait a minute! I’ll go! I’ll go and I’ll apologise for last night, she’ll tell me what a giant loser I am, and I’ll plant the bug, no tranquing necessary.”

Lena turned to her with an arched eyebrow. She didn’t like the thought of sending Kara up to Lucy, but she couldn’t figure out if it was out of a sense of danger, or jealousy. _This is why we can’t date_ , she reminded herself. Lines were getting blurred and she had no one to blame but herself.

She handed the bug to Kara. “You know where it goes right?”

Kara nodded.

“Button is on the top, click on, click off,” she demonstrated to Kara. Kara watched the little red light appear and disappear on the bug. She took it from Lena’s fingertips and stuck it in her pocket, hopping out of the van.

She made her way through the hotel lobby and pressed the button to call the elevator. She was antsy as she rode up to the 11th floor. She prayed that Lucy would let her into the room to even plant the bug, let alone explain. She exited the elevator and walked slowly to Lucy’s door. She stood with a fist raised, ready to knock, took a deep breath and rapped three times on the door.

“Who is it?” Came Lucy’s voice from inside the room.

“It’s the lying, yet well-meaning fool who rented a Ferrari last night?”

“I don’t want to talk to you, Kara.”

Kara closed her eyes. “Okay then, well I’ll do all the talking.” She took another deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know this may come as a shock to you, but I’m here to do something totally crazy and tell you the truth.” She waited for an answer that didn’t come, so she continued.

“I still work at the Nerd Herd, and I still live with my sister, and I still have no idea what I’m doing with my life. I guess I just wanted you to think I was someone special. So, in order to accomplish that, I went out and got a new suit and rented a car that I clearly could not afford, because from the second I saw you again...I knew that I hadn’t gotten over you yet, Lucy.”

She was silent for a moment, listening for any movement from the other side of the door. A moment later, the door creaked open with just the chain holding it closed, and Lucy’s face appeared, looking soft and lovely.

“Really? You haven’t gotten over me?”

Kara chuckled softly, then fixed Lucy with an earnest smile. “Nope.”

Lucy closed the door abruptly, pulled the chain off the door, and then pulled it back open again. “Get in here.”

Kara smiled and walked in after her. She looked around the room and saw papers everywhere.

“Sorry about the mess, I’m still working on my lecture.” She walked deeper into the room and moved over to the table to clear papers off the table. Kara turned her back to her and pulled the bug out of her pocket, clicking the button on.

“Yeah, you were starting to say last night...infectious disease or something? Sounded like you were speaking Aramaic or something.”

Lucy laughed, shuffling papers around. “Not Aramaic. Simple biochem 101. Oh right! You slept through that class in college.”

“A lot of good that class would do me in my current line of work,” she said in a self-deprecating manner as she tried to find a good hiding place for the bug. She had just settled on the back of the phone, when Lucy’s voice rang out: “Stop it!”

She jumped at the exclamation and turned around quickly, hiding the bug behind her back. “Stop what?”

“Stop underselling yourself, Kara! There was a part of last night, somewhere after getting minor whiplash in your car and before abandoning you on the side of the road, where I had a really, really nice time.” She made her way over to stand in front of Kara and looked up at her with soft eyes.

“Really?” Kara looked down into her soft green eyes. They were a cool green, like mint, not the forest green of Lena’s left eye. The thought of Lena brought a tightness to her chest and she pushed it away, focusing on Lucy.

“Yes,” Lucy laughed, “so, no more lies. No more deception, okay?”

Kara stared down at her. How could she agree to that? She was literally here to plant a bug in her room. She rolled the bug in between her fingers behind her back and then made a decision. She clicked off the button and let it fall to the floor, then nudged it inconspicuously under the bed with her shoe. 

“No more lies. No more deception.”

“Good,” said Lucy with a grin. “You know how much I’ve missed doing this?” She took a step closer to Kara. They were barely an inch apart.

“Missed doing what?” Kara asked. 

Lucy leaned up and pressed her lips to hers. They were soft and warm, slightly sticky from her gloss. Kara pressed forward gently and ran her hands up Lucy’s arms, bringing them to rest on her biceps. Lucy pulled away gently.

“This,” Lucy said with a smile. Kara laughed lightly. Lucy pressed one more kiss to her lips before telling her (apologetically) that she had to get back to work.

Kara made her way back downstairs and out to the van, a smile never leaving her face.

She climbed into the van and was immediately faced with a concerned Lena. “What happened?!”

Her tone shook Kara out of her Lucy-induced haze. “Oh! Yeah, no it was great...fine...we really connected…” She began to drift back to the kiss again.

“She’s talking about the bug, moron!” Hank looked at her in disgust.

“Oh yes! That! Of course! Yeah, I planted it. It is planted. I--I--I _may_ have turned it off though, I’m not totally sure…”

Lena stared at her in confusion. “Why would you do that?”

“Relax,” Hank growled, “these things are pretty much idiot-proof. If it’s in the room, it picks up the signal.” He clicked a few buttons on the control panel and the bug’s audio line appeared on the screen. “It worked. We’re tapped into her cell and the room phone.”

Kara sat in her seat, letting Hank’s words wash over her, thinking back to the kiss she and Lucy had shared. It brought her right back to college, to when she had last been at her peak. She smiled as she felt the tingling on her lips.

“Why are you smiling like that,” asked Lena.

Kara stared into space. “She kissed me…no spy stuff…no lies…just me…”

She looked up and saw the look on Lena’s face. She couldn’t make heads nor tails of her expression, but she gathered that she wasn’t particularly happy about this development. A movement on the screen behind her caught her eye and she turned her head to the monitor, catching a glimpse of a hotel employee at Morrow’s door. The employee had a tattoo on the back of his neck and Kara flashed on it.

“Oh! Ah! That dude is some kind of an assassin!” She pointed frantically to the man on the screen. “His code name is Manhunter.”

Hank and Lena grabbed their firearms and threw open the door. 

“Kara…” Lena began.

“I know, I know, stay in the van.”

“And don’t touch anything!” Hank threw over his shoulder before slamming the door closed.

Kara rolled her eyes and watched the monitors. She saw Lena and Hank enter the elevator when a phone began to dial over the speaker. She realised it was Lucy’s hotel room phone and she put the headset on to listen in.

_“Hello,”_ came an unfamiliar woman’s voice from the other end of the line.

_“Hey, it’s me.”_

_“Hey! How are you after last night?”_

_“Oh my god, Lois guess what? You’re not going to believe who came to my room to apologise tonight?”_

Kara recognised Lois as Lucy’s sister who lived in Metropolis. She’d never met her, but she knew that she and Lucy had always been pretty close.

_“What?! No. Please tell me you did not let that loser in!”_

Kara grimaced and her mouth dropped into a frown. She couldn’t really blame Lois for her perception of Kara, but it didn’t make it sting any less.

_“She looked like a puppy dog! I couldn’t say no...and I still think she’s kinda cute.”_

Kara preened at those words. Lucy thought she was cute. The thought warmed her.

_“Cute?! She’s a computer dork that makes $12 an hour!”_

“ _Helloooo_ it’s $15,” Kara muttered quietly.

There was a pause, then:

_“Kara?! Kara, are you on my phone?”_

The colour drained from Kara’s face. She squeezed her eyes closed. She had no idea the bug went both ways. She tried to think quickly.

“Uhhh...Lucy? Is that you?”

_“Why are you on my phone?”_ She demanded, a thread of anxiety clear in her voice.

“I don’t know! I don’t--that’s so--that’s--” she stammered out. She blew a breath out and tried to think of a believable lie. “I tried calling you, so I think our--our wires got crossed or something! Is this a party line?” She cringed at the high pitch her voice had hit on the last word. She wished a hole would open in the earth and swallow her whole.

_“What did you do to my phone? Did you bug it or something?!”_

Kara laughed nervously. “Bug it?! What--what am I, an entomologist or something?” She laughed too loudly. “No--no way, you’re talking crazy, ma’am!”

_“I’m calling security!”_ She slammed the receiver down.

“Oh. Oh god. Okay.” She took off the headset slowly and set it down on the table. She let out a slow deep breath and closed her eyes. She had just begun to get her breathing under control when there was a loud **_WHUMPF_ **and the roof of the van dented in as something crashed into it.

She snapped her head up and looked at the indentation on the roof of the van. As something near the front of the van caught her eye, the speaker crackled to life again, and Hank’s voice came over the system.

“Kara, Morrow isn’t in his room.”

She looked toward the front of the van in shock as she watched Dr. Morrow’s body slide down the windshield, blood trickling out of his mouth, his limbs all at weird angles.

“I know,” she replied.

***

Kara stared through the glass into the interrogation room where Lucy sat with Hank, sobbing.

Hank handed her a tissue, his face cringing at the sight of her tears. “Let it all out,” he said flatly, as she blew her nose loudly.

“I feel terrible,” said Kara, turning to Lena. “Maybe I should go in there and console her.”

“She can’t know you’re a spy, Kara.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Of course, she’ll just think I’m a stalker.”

“She doesn’t think you’re a stalker,” said Lena, turning to face the blonde. 

Kara stared at the agent for a moment, before a squeaking sound drew her attention back to the interrogation room. Hank had pushed all of the used tissues into the trash and was disinfecting the table with a poorly disguised look of disgust on his face. Kara had to suppress the urge to snicker.

“So,” Hank began in a monotone, his face relaying his discomfort with being around a sobbing Lucy, “why do you think Dr. Morrow was killed?”

Lucy ignored the question, looking around the room. “What is this place? Why was I blindfolded?”

“It’s a secret CIA compound. We’ve been watching you for days, Ms. Lane.”

Lucy tilted her head and furrowed her brow. “Watching me? Why?”

“We thought your boss was into some shady business. We kept an eye on you as well. To protect you.” He pulled a file out of the stack next to him and opened it for her to look at surveillance photos that had been taken of her and Kara. 

Lucy sifted through them, a look of confusion laying over her pretty features. “That’s my ex-girlfriend, Kara. Is she involved in this? She’s been acting really weird lately. One minute she’s completely normal, the next she’s acting like a total lunatic.”

Kara cringed at the description.

“She didn’t say stalker,” said Lena, helpfully.

“Almost like a stalker,” Lucy continued.

Kara turned quickly to Lena, who averted her eyes and sucked her lips into her mouth.

Hank stood up from the table and walked over to the two-way mirror where he knew Kara was standing just on the other side. “Yeah, it can be a pattern with these losers. Pretty girl smiles, they get all infatuated. Seen it a million times.” He winked at Kara through the glass and clicked his tongue, before turning back to Lucy. “No, she wasn’t involved. Your boss Thomas, however…”

“Maybe he was involved, but not how you think,” Lucy cut in. “Morrow discovered an anti-viral serum for a strain of influenza used in bioweapons. An airborne influenza so deadly, it could kill a person in one hour, if exposed. A couple of days ago, he learned that our company secretly sells the influenza bioweapon. That’s why Morrow planned to present our research at the convention. So that the company couldn’t cover it up anymore. I guess it’s up to me to do that now.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “No! No no no!” She began pounding on the glass.

Hank ignored her. “So you’ll do the presentation--”

“No, it’s too dangerous, Hank!” Kara shouted, rapping on the glass again.

Lucy glanced up at the window. “Um, your window is knocking.”

Hank excused himself with an irritated huff and left the room, bursting through the door of the observation room. “What?!”

“Lucy is not going to the conference! The assassin will kill her!”

“It’s our only chance, the only way to smoke him out,” Hank replied calmly.

“It’s too dangerous for her,” Kara insisted. “Okay? I am putting my foot down!” Hank raised an eyebrow at her and stepped forward. “Gingerly,” she added, stepping back.

“Look Danvers, my job is to protect _all_ of the citizens of this nation, not just the ones that raise your flag.”

Kara turned to Lena, a look of desperation settling over her features. “Please Lena! We cannot use Lucy as bait and risk her life giving that presentation!”

Lena stood silently for a moment, arms crossed over her chest. “Fine,” she said finally, “I’ll give the presentation.”

Kara’s eyes widened, and before she could protest, Lena left the room.

***

Hank stood up on the stage surveying the crowd, dressed as private security. He looked across the room at Lena, who was standing next to the entrance to the conference room, checking the faces of each attendee as they entered, looking for the assassin who had killed Dr. Morrow. 

“Anything,” he asked into his wrist comm. Lena shook her head, “All clear so far.”

Just then the announcer came up to the podium and introduced the next speaker, who would have been Lucy. 

“Please take your seats! Giving the presentation for Dr. Thomas Morrow will be his associate coming from Ireland, Dr. Ava Lance.”

There was a smattering of applause as Lena approached the stage, notecards in hand. 

“Hello, I’m Dr. Ava Lance, and I’m here to talk to you today about a deadly poison that could change the course of human science.” She alternated between her notes and looking around at the faces in the room as she spoke. “I’m honored to stand before you all today on behalf of Dr. Morrow. Throughout the many years of our research...” She noticed a man in an awful wig stand and try to nonchalantly leave the room, and she narrowed her eyes. She glanced over at Henshaw and nodded toward the man, and he moved in his direction. The man noticed Hank approaching and took off out the door.

“Excuse me, I’ve got to go to the loo,” Lena finished before sprinting off the stage and out the door after the man. Hank ran over to where the man had been seated and kicked over his chair, revealing an aerosol distributor that was puffing out a noxious gas. 

He turned to the security guards at the entrance. “Seal the room!” As they slammed the doors closed and locked them, Hank turned to the guests. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is an NSA emergency! No one, I repeat, _no one_ gets in or out!”

He pulled out his phone and dialed the CDC and his superiors, then he called Kara. 

_“Hank, hey, is everything okay?”_

“Our Manhunter friend released the poison. Lena got out. I’m still in here with the scientists. Hazmat crews are on the way. We have an hour, maybe less. You gotta get to Lucy, see if she has an antidote.” He could feel his throat beginning to itch and he heard a woman start coughing behind him.

_“I--I really don’t think she wants to see me right now,”_ Kara responded hesitantly.

“Kara! We’re dying in here! I don’t care what you have to say or do, just get it done!”

He hung up the phone and threw it on the table. He hoped the nerd could come through for them before it was too late.

***

Lena chased the assassin through the labyrinth of hallways and corridors down to the basement. She passed his horrible wig along the way and knew she was hot on his trail.

She crept around the corner into the boiler room, her gun raised to chin level. She peered around the corner and caught the assassin’s reflection in a particularly shiny metal fusebox. She narrowed her eyes and took aim, waiting for him to come around the corner. But the assassin caught sight of her in the same mirrored box and took a shot at her. Lena dropped to the ground quickly, but she still heard the zip of the bullet as it flew past her. She rolled out of the way as she heard him fire off another shot. Raising herself up onto one knee, she fired. She heard a grunt and then the assassin dropped to the ground. 

She rushed over to him, knocking the gun away from his hand with her boot. Lena knelt down next to the man. He wasn’t moving. A pool of blood began to seep out from under him. She felt for a pulse, but couldn’t find one. She sighed. “Dammit.” She noticed a badge lying on the ground next to him and picked it up. “CIA?” What the hell was he doing with a CIA badge? 

***

Kara pounded on Lucy’s hotel room door with a clenched fist. “Lucy, you have to open the door, it’s an emergency!”

“Kara, go away, this isn’t funny anymore!”

“Look, I know my credibility with you is at an all time low, but you need to listen to me. The bioweapon has been released at the conference center.”

The door flew open and Lucy looked up at her in shock. “How do _you_ know about the virus?”

“Because, Lucy…I’m a CIA agent.”

Lucy looked at her with a pained expression. “Oh my god, Kara, you _really_ need to get some help.” She tried to push the door closed, but Kara stopped it with her hand.

“I am the help. Don’t believe anything else that I’ve told you, but believe this: we have to get the antidote to them right now!”

“I’m going to call the police!” Lucy said angrily.

“I’ve already taken the liberty,” said Kara, motioning to the hallway next to her, where the entire tactical assault team Hank had ordered was waiting with her. “Have a look for yourself.”

Lucy stared at her and then peered around the door frame, her eyes bugging out of her face as she took in the men and women in full tactical gear, waiting patiently in the hallway. “Oh my god.”

She turned back to Kara. “You are telling the truth.” She dashed back into her room to grab her things.

Kara turned to the team leader next to her. “She’s pretty cute, right?” The leader said nothing, but grinned. “We used to date,” she added with a grin.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Lucy, reemerging with her bag. Kara grabbed her hand and marched down the hallway, hopping in the Nerd Herder and flooring it to the convention center.

***

When they arrived, the crowd outside was in disarray. There was NCFD, NCPD, CDC, FBI, NSA, and CIA personnel scattered all over the parking lot.

Kara marched up to the nearest person with a walkie. “Hey, who’s in charge here?” He directed her over to an agent a few feet away. She grabbed the walkie out of his hand, switching it to Hanks’ comms frequency. “Thanks!” She hurried toward the convention center doors before he could protest.

“Hank, I’m here, I’m with Lucy, what’s your status?” She pushed through the crowd and through the entrance until she was in the lobby outside of the sealed off conference room.

“By my count, we’ve got about 15 minutes,” he wheezed back into his comms. His face was ashen and sweaty and he felt as if he would faint at any moment.

“I need to go in there,” said Lucy, turning to the CDC crew behind them. “I need a Level-A hazmat suit, right now!”

“We don’t have those suits yet,” a CDC crew member answered, “Hazmat team will be here in 10 minutes.”

“We don’t have 10 minutes, I’ll go in without one.”

Kara’s stomach dropped and she felt her heart judder to a halt. “No! You--no, it’s too dangerous, I’ll do it!”

Lucy turned to her. “Kara, whoever goes in there has to be able to make the antidote, and that’s me.”

“Well, is it something you could talk me through?”

“I--I guess,” she answered, pulling items out of her bag.

“Okay, well then I’m going in,” said Kara firmly. She turned toward the doors.

“Kara, wait!”

She paused and turned back.

“Are you sure, Kara?”

“Yeah, I’ve got this,” she said with a smile.

Lucy smiled up at her. “Okay. Well, I’m going to have to inject you first.”

Kara’s smile fell off her face at those words. She watched with large eyes as Lucy pulled a pneumatic syringe gun out of her case.

“Uh,” she started, never taking her eyes off of the needle, “wow, that’s a big needle.”

“Ready?” Lucy gripped her arm and lined up the syringe.

“Yeah,” said Kara weakly, averting her eyes away from the needle.

She heard a small hiss and felt a slight pinch and then it was over. She sighed in relief.

“That was a modified strain of the virus. Now your body will start metabolising the poison and the anti-viral serum is going to be created from your blood.”

Kara grabbed her arm in the place where Lucy had injected her. “Poison? Poison! I thought I was getting the antidote, you just gave me poison?!”

“Yeah,” said Lucy, as if this was obvious. “That’s the only way to make the antidote. Did you not understand that?”

“No!” Kara began backtracking. “That--no, no I understand that whole…part…We’re living on the edge!” She gave an anxious smile to Lucy, took the case containing the cure, and then turned back to the doors. “Love the rush…”

She pushed open the conference room doors and pushed them swiftly closed behind her. Kara surveyed the scene around her. It didn’t look good. Everyone was at least 3 shades too pale, and most were doubled over, coughing like they were down to one lung. She spotted Hank sitting at a table, face covered in sweat, and she rushed over to him.

“No no no, what are you doing in here,” he rasped out.

“It’s a long story, but the headline is: I’m our only hope for survival,” said Kara, dropping into the seat next to him.

Hank grunted. “And here I thought things couldn’t get any worse.”

Lucy’s voice crackled over the walkie. “Okay Kara, inside the briefcase is a medi-syringe multi-dose injector. I need you to extract 60cc’s of your own blood, put it through the centrifuge, and then inject 1cc of the antiviral serum into each of those infected.”

A crinkle appeared on Kara’s forehead as she stared down at the syringe in her hand. “Uhhh…” she turned to Hank, who seemed to be losing consciousness. “Okay, okay Hank?” Hank raised his arm for Kara to inject him. “No no no, Hank, you have to take the gun, okay? Take the gun, and then you have to take my--my blood, okay? So just take my blood.” She held out her arm to Henshaw, squeezed her eyes closed and turned away. 

“Okay,” Hank wheezed. He gripped Kara’s wrist in sweaty palm and grabbed the syringe, trying to line it up with Kara’s veins. It was no use. As soon as he tried to sit up, his vision began to go black.

“Take the gun, Kara,” he rasped.

“What?”

“Take the gun, Kara. Take it.”

Kara opened her eyes just in time to watch Hank fall out of his chair, unconscious, the syringe shattering on the tile floor.

“Oh god!”

Lucy’s voice came over the walkie again. “Kara, what’s happening?”

“I need--I need help right now! Hank is fading fast, the gun just dropped, and it shattered!”

“That was the only syringe, Kara!”

Kara paled. Had she really just killed all of these people because she was too afraid to take her own blood?

“Okay, just stay calm,” said Lucy, “I’m gonna find another.”

“Lucy, please hurry,” Kara panted, looking down at Hank’s ashen face. “We’re running out of time.”

She dropped down to her knees next to Hank and slapped his cheeks until he came to. She helped him sit up and lean back against the front of the stage. As she paced back and forth in front of him, she rambled nervously, “What are we gonna do, Hank?”

“You’ll think of something,” he choked out, “you’re smart.” A coughing fit overtook him for a moment. “You went to NCU...sort of…”

A man laying on the stage threw his face over the side of the stage and sneezed right next to Henshaw’s face.

“Oh god!” He weakly shoved the man backward. “Cover your mouth, that’s disgusting!”

Kara turned, a light bulb going off in her head. “That’s it!” She rushed over to Hank and dropped to sit next to him. “Hey, this is going to sound crazy, but--but viruses are spread airborne, right? I mean, you catch them when someone sneezes or cough, yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Hank in confusion.

“Well, maybe the antivirals metabolise in saliva!”

“What are you talking about?”

Kara cringed and then licked her lips, looking down at Henshaw’s. She winced. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this.” She reached out and grabbed Hank’s shoulders, pulling him toward her.

“No, no, no!” Hank grunted, trying to pull away from her. “I served my country with honour, Kara. Please, let me die with dignity!”

Kara cringed and closed her eyes, pulling Hank in and smashing her lips to his. She felt him fighting her, his arms and legs flailing, but he was so weak that it was no use.

“Kara?” Lucy’s voice filtered into her senses. She pulled away from Hank quickly and began gagging immediately.

“What are you doing?!” Lucy asked incredulously, staring at her in shock from inside her hazmat suit.

“Lucy! Hey! I thought that--I thought that maybe the antivirals could be spread by saliva!”

Lucy stared at her blankly for a moment. “Kara, that’s _ridiculous_. No wonder you failed biochem.” She turned back to the table and opened her case, pulling out the new syringe.

Hank turned and scowled at her, a murderous look in his eye. A low growl escaped from his gritted teeth.

“From the deepest recesses of my soul, I am so sorry,” she said quickly. He looked as if he wanted to strangle her but, being too weak, opted to just let his head fall back against the stage.

Kara turned back to Lucy who had gripped her arm and was lining up the syringe. “Oh here we go again,” she whimpered.

She fought to keep a straight face as the needle plunged into her skin. She felt some bile rise into her throat, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the virus, kissing Hank, or the needle. She watched as Lucy removed the requisite blood, loaded it into the centrifuge and spun it to create the antidote. Upon completion, Lucy injected her with the antiviral. 

“Okay, here, you take one half of the room, I’ll take the other,” she handed Kara a syringe, “remember: 1cc each, okay? Hurry!” 

Kara nodded and immediately turned to Hank, injecting him. She moved around the room, injecting all the attendees with the antidote. 

As she and Lucy finished injecting the attendees, they made their way to the doors and threw them open, stepping out into the fresh air. Lucy yanked off her hazmat helmet. The CDC, NCPD, and NCFD members that were in the lobby applauded them, as they made their way through the crowd. The CDC doctors went into the conference room to check on the patients.

Kara spotted Lena making her way through the crowd with a large smile on her face. She grinned back and went to take a step toward her when Lucy grabbed her hand.

“Kara,” she said breathlessly, “you’re amazing!”

“Nah,” said Kara with a dismissive wave. She paused. “Well, maybe a little,” she joked.

Lucy grinned up at her and threw her arms around Kara’s neck, pulling her down to meet her lips in a bruising kiss. Kara wrapped her arms around Lucy’s back and pulled her in close, feeling the slick material of the hazmat suit against her forearms. She lifted Lucy up around the middle, and Lucy took the opportunity to wrap her legs around Kara’s waist, while she slid her tongue over Kara’s bottom lip. Kara opened her mouth to her, no other thoughts in her head but this right here. She knew they were still in a crowd of agents and officers, but right then, she didn’t have a care in the world about who saw them. She had saved the day, she had Lucy back, and that was all that mattered.

***

Lena wound her way through the throng of people and saw Kara make her way out of the conference room, successful in her mission. She joined the crowd of people applauding her for her job well done, then she pushed forward to get closer to the blonde. She saw Kara catch her eye and she gave her a wide smile, which the blonde returned.

She was so proud of Kara. Of course, she was furious that once again Kara had found herself in harm’s way, but the fact that she had once again saved countless lives without any formal training, just because it was the right thing to do, filled her with a deep warmth. She was just about to run to the blonde when she saw Lucy throw her arms around Kara and pull her into a deep kiss. 

She stopped dead in her tracks, the smile melting from her face. She watched Kara scoop Lucy up into her arms and deepen the kiss before she had to turn away, her heart dropping into her stomach. She felt a burning in her eyes and she scolded herself for getting emotional. _You know the rules, Luthor. You set them. You can’t go getting upset when you did this to yourself._ It didn’t help. She glanced back at the pair, lips still interlocked, before she faced forward. Taking a deep centering breath, she placed her feelings for Kara inside of a box and shoved it deep inside of her, just as the CIA had trained her to do. She opened her eyes, let out a breath, and disappeared into the crowd.

***

“Lucy Lane now knows Kara’s an asset. What do you want us to do about it?” 

Hank and Lena were sitting in the base under the Wienerlicious, General Haley on the monitor. 

“I want you to do nothing. The assassin Agent Luthor shot was a member of Leviathan, a rogue CIA agent. We don’t know the extent of their penetration. If Lucy knows something, they may make a play for her.”

“So,” Hank began cautiously, “you want us to use her as bait?”

“General,” Lena began, “Kara has real feelings for this woman. I don’t think she would approve of us using her like this.”

“That’s why you’re not going to tell her, Agent Luthor,” said Haley before signing off.

Lena stared up at the blank screen, a line appearing in between her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. Now she was going to have to lie to Kara about something that she knew Kara would disapprove of. She tried to shove down the aching that had begun in her chest. That was something she could not address right now. She blew out a breath and began her mission report instead.

***

Kara tossed her keys in the dish beside the door. She couldn’t quit smiling, the kiss (or kisses) with Lucy kept replaying through her mind all evening.

“Wow,” came Alex’s voice from the couch. “That’s something I haven’t seen in a while.”

Kara frowned and glanced down at her Nerd Herd uniform. “This? But I wear this like, five days a week.”

“No, dork, your smile. You look happy.”

Realisation dawned on her and she found her mind drifting back to the kiss. “Yeah…yeah, that thing,” she laughed lightly, making her way over to the couch to sit down with her sister. “Um, I don’t know…I guess I found some of those answers that you said I was looking for.”

“Well thank god,” said Alex with a smile, “I am so relieved. I just think that, you know, Lena…there’s really just something special about her.”

Kara paled. She realised that she was going to have to lie to Alex again and she felt some bile collect in her throat.

Alex continued, “I think you had to go through all of that stuff with Lucy in order for you to figure out who _the one_ is for you. And now that you’ve found her…you’ll stop wondering about somebody else!”

Kara nodded slowly, trying to think of something to say that wasn’t an outright lie. Luckily, she was saved by her phone ringing. She glanced down at the caller-ID: _Lucy._

“Take it,” said Alex with a smile, “tell Lena I said hi.”

Kara just gave her a small smile before she walked down the hallway to her room. 

“Hey,” she said, closing her door.

_“How’s my favourite secret agent?”_

“Um, good. Yeah--good. I just--Winn told me I have to study for some CPR test at work tomorrow...I could use some help with the mouth-to-mouth part.” She could hear Lucy smile through the phone.

_“Well what about your cover girlfriend? Won’t she be jealous?”_

“No,” said Kara firmly. “No, our relationship is a cover. You know? Nothing to be jealous about.” If there was one thing she was certain of, it was that Lena certainly wasn’t going to be jealous of Lucy. She didn’t like Kara _that_ much.

_“So…everything? It’s all fake? That sounds really lonely, Kara.”_

Kara sat quietly on her bed for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. But, now that you’re here, maybe we can have something real. Us. Together.”

_“I like the sound of that.”_

Kara smiled. This was finally her chance. Finally, she could have something real, with someone who knew all the parts of her, the real and the fake, and who accepted all of them. She felt a warmth fill her chest and she found a lump gather in her throat at the thought of having something real. She cleared her throat.

“So about that mouth-to-mouth…”

Lucy giggled and Kara grinned at the sound. She lay back on her bed, with the phone to her ear, finally hopeful again.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we go, Jealous Lena time!
> 
> Shout out if you caught the WAP reference 😂😂
> 
> Leave a comment if you loved it or if you hated it or if you just want to yell at me.
> 
> Follow me on the tweeter @Magnum_Dorkus


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Lucy just want a little bit of fucking privacy. Hank gets a sadistic pleasure out of preventing that. Lena is just trying to deal. Lucy misinterprets a moment between Kara and Lena.

Kara and Lucy raced up the stairs and Kara pressed her back against the wall as they came across a motion sensor. She carefully pulled out the small can of hairspray she had stowed in her jacket pocket and sprayed the sensor. That would give them about 20 seconds to get up the next two flights of stairs before it hardened clear. She dashed up the steps, taking them two at a time, pulling Lucy along behind her.

Finally, they reached the door to the roof and she pulled out a flathead screwdriver, prying off the metal covering that encased the alarm system for the door. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pair of alligator clips, attaching them to the corresponding leads and plugging the other end into her phone. She began running a program to silence the alarm. A green check mark appeared on the screen, informing her that the alarm was off. 

She turned and grinned at Lucy and pushed the door open to silence. “Free at last,” she said, pulling Lucy into a kiss. It had been getting harder to find places to meet. Besides the fact that she was still technically “dating” Lena and people wouldn’t take too kindly to her being seen with another woman, she knew Alex wouldn’t be happy about her seeing Lucy, and that meant that she had to wait until Alex and Kelly were out of the apartment before Lucy could come over. But even when they’d completed that dance, there were still the hidden cameras and bugs in Kara’s room to contend with.

They thought they might overcome this by spending their nights in Lucy’s hotel, but she was still under constant surveillance as well, due to her boss’ work. All it took was Kara flashing on the hotel worker delivering their champagne and strawberries and finding out he was actually an NSA agent tasked with keeping an eye on things before she was ready to pull her hair out--and Hank’s too. He seemed to get a sadistic pleasure out of following her exploits, letting her know that she had no privacy.

Which is how they wound up on the roof of the Nerd Herd. As far as she knew there was only one camera up here, and it pointed to the loading docks. Now, perhaps, they could finally be alone. Kara walked out onto the roof, arms outstretched and spun in a slow circle. 

“Welcome to the world of international espionage,” she said with a laugh. “Very handy for picnics.”

Lucy giggled and handed her the picnic blanket. “I have to say, I still can’t wrap my head around the idea of you as a spy. You never did tell me how that happened.”

Kara twisted the blanket in her hand. “Uhhh...well…” She took a deep breath and stalled by spreading the blanket out on the ground so that she could think of something to say. Lucy knew about her spywork, she had been vetted, theoretically she could be trusted to know about the Intersect. Yet something in Kara's gut stopped her from telling her the whole truth. 

“Well...you don’t really choose your profession. I suppose the right job chooses you.” 

She knelt down on the blanket and began pulling the snacks out of Lucy’s bag. Lucy came to sit next to her. “Still, I  _ never _ would have guessed it.”

“Well, why don’t you just come here and soak up this romantic view,” said Kara, opening her arms and trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, real romantic,” said Lucy wryly, as she leaned into Kara’s embrace.

“What?! This is the Nerd Herd roof!” Kara sniffed loudly. “You smell that? That is rarified air! Very few people ever get to experience that.” Lucy laughed and leaned away to grab the bottle of the cheap wine they used to drink in college. “Not to mention,” Kara continued in a sad tone, “there aren’t really a whole lot of places I can go that aren’t under constant surveillance.”

She caught Lucy’s sympathetic look and tried to gloss over the moment with a joke. “The government finds me very,  _ very _ valuable,” she said in a low, seductive voice.

“Can’t say that I blame them,” said Lucy with a smile, leaning back in for a kiss.

Kara reached up to her neck and pulled her in close, feeling her warm lips and moving her tongue over them to ask for entrance. Lucy had just opened her mouth to Kara when a whirring noise caught Kara’s attention. She tried to look discreetly, but when she saw the single surveillance camera swiveling on its axis to point at the pair, she pulled away in anger.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

***

Hank snickered at the monitor as he watched Kara yell and gesture at the camera. He turned and shot a grin at Lena. “What an amateur.”

Lena sighed as she sifted through her paperwork. “Hank, is that really necessary? I mean, how much trouble could she get into on a  _ date _ ?”

“It’s  _ Kara _ ,” said Hank, as if that explained everything.

Lena merely raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she moved on to look through surveillance photos of Dr. Morrow.

“You’re pretty nonchalant about your supercomputer girlfriend trying to browse someone else’s network.”

Lena didn’t look up. “Well, I’m just her cover girlfriend.” She finally met Hank’s eyes, keeping her face intentionally blank. Hank stared at her for a moment, then turned back to the monitors. She looked up at the screen, where Kara was clearly still pleading her case to the camera. “Kara’s entitled to a real one.” She stared up at the blonde on the screen with a small sad smile until the bleep of the monitor pulled her out of her thoughts.

“Major Henshaw, Agent Luthor,” said General Haley, “I have the intel on your new mission, but it’s going to require some unorthodox reconnaissance. It turns out, our deceased doctor, Dr. Morrow, obtained a list of CIA codenames of the agents he worked with. We have reason to believe it’s a list of Leviathan operatives. This may be our only chance to find the corrupt agents within our ranks.”

“Great,” said Lena, “where’s the list now?”

“Intel thinks it’s hidden in Morrow’s hotel room at the Waldron. We have to get to that list before Leviathan does. You need to take the Intersect in, off the record, and see if she can flash. Perhaps Kara can find out where the list is hidden.”

Lena frowned. “You want us to break into a government-controlled crime scene?”

Hank snickered and rolled his eyes. “It’s the  _ FBI _ . How hard can it be?”

Lena opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by an alarm pinging that indicated someone had entered the Wienerlicious above the base. She looked up to the screen and saw Kara angrily entering the restaurant. “I handle it,” she said to Hank, excusing herself.

She exited the freezer to find Kara pacing around the dining room.

“Really?!” Kara said angrily, “A camera on the roof? Because of what? Because of all of the terrorist activity on top of the Nerd Herd?!”

“Okay whoa,” Lena said, raising her hand to calm Kara, “Hank may have been a little aggressive with the surveillance, but we’ve just received our new mission.”

“Already?”

Lena nodded. “Tomorrow we’re going to break into Dr. Morrow’s hotel room. We think he might have a list of all the Leviathan agents that were blackmailing him.”

Kara stood silently in thought for a moment. “Wow, okay.” She shook herself out of her thoughts. “Look, can we talk about this tomorrow? ‘Cause I’ve got Lucy waiting for me in the car.”

“Oh...of course,” said Lena, forcing a smile and a happier tone than she currently felt.

Kara nodded briskly, not returning the smile, and turned to leave. Lena furrowed her brow. Kara wasn't usually so brusque, at least not with her. Maybe there was something more bothering her. She walked out from behind the counter where she had been standing. “Um, Kara?”

Kara turned back, a brief look of impatience flashing across her face before it disappeared and her soft smile returned. “Yeah?”

Lena walked up to her. “Is everything alright?” She tried to convey as much concern in her tone as she could.

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine, why do you ask? Or--or is this some spy thing? Some kind of on-the-spot psych evaluation, or something like that?”

Lena shrugged awkwardly as she stared up into Kara’s sweet face. “It’s a friend thing. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Kara’s shoulders dropped and a smile stretched across her face. “Yeah. Yeah I’m great! Being with Lucy is--it’s like having my old life back. And not to bash on our cover, but I’d forgotten what it’s like to be with someone who knows the real me.”

Lena tried not to let on the way the words hit her like a Mack truck in the chest. She swallowed and forced a smile. “Well, from everything I’ve seen, she seems like a great girl.”

“Well, if you could see a little  _ less… _ ” Kara said with a grimace. “Maybe ease up on the whole ‘Kara Danvers 24 hour surveillance’ thing?”

Lena forced another smile and gave a curt nod. “Yeah, I’ll--I’ll talk to Hank. You deserve your privacy, Kara.”

Kara nodded. “Thank you.”

Lena merely smiled up at her. 

Kara gave her a tightlipped smile back until she realised Lena wasn’t going to say anything else, then she said a quiet, “Okay,” and dashed out of the restaurant, out to a waiting Lucy, to continue their date.

Lena watched her rush off to be with the other woman and she felt her heart fall into her stomach.  _ You blew it _ , the voice in her head said,  _ You blew it and now she’s with someone else and she’s happy. _ She shook her head as if to shake the thoughts from her mind. She couldn’t do this. Somewhere along the way, somewhere between when Kara had defused a bomb with porn and when she had been so kind to her after her high school reunion, she’d fallen for the blonde and she didn’t know what to do about it.  _ Extremely inconvenient,  _ she thought as she headed back down to the base. She boxed up her feelings again and shoved them down, checking in with Hank before heading to the shooting range.

***

“So, Lena said there’s gonna be an easing up on the Kara surveillance?”

Kara trailed after Hank into the Nerd Herd the next morning, guzzling down her latte.

“You’re a government asset, Kara,” Hank growled, “sometimes your personal life has to take a backseat.”

“We tried the backseat,” Kara spat back, “You have a camera in the car too! Come on man, how many second chances do you get with the one who got away? Plus, she already knows I’m a--” she made a gun with her fingers to indicate ‘spy’. Hank slapped her hand down.

“I’m not even interested in  _ my own _ feelings, Kara, let alone yours, so just keep your mind on the mission. We leave in 10.” He walked away grumbling, brushing past Winn.

“Hey, Kara--morning Hank!--guess what, buddy?” Winn looked around before he pulled a small cardboard box from his pocket. “Canada just delivered its most delightful gift since Ryan Reynolds.” He reached into the box and pulled out a computer chip of some kind. “Behold! The Q-36 game copier!” Kara took it from his fingers and stared down at it with wide eyes.

“Dude, check it out, now all we have to do is rent a game, rip it, and we never have to pay for our entertainment again!” He chuckled mischievously. 

Kara raised her eyebrows. “Yeah. Management’s gonna be really thrilled about that seeing as how we  _ sell _ video games.”

Winn rolled his eyes. “Come on, dude! This thing can ignore  _ all _ forms of copy protection! It can copy anything!” He leaned in and whispered, “Highly illegal.”

Kara sighed in resignation. “Well, pending your arrest, I’m very happy for you, but I’ve got an offsite install first thing, so I gotta go.”

She rode with Hank in the Nerd Herder back to her apartment. He went into his to prep for the mission with Lena, and Kara went to hers. Finding the apartment empty, she texted Lucy to see if she wanted to help her get ready. She didn’t know much about the mission yet, just that she and Lena would be using their dating cover, but she’d been told to dress well, and the CIA had provided another handsome suit.

Lucy arrived less than 30 minutes later and, after a  _ very  _ friendly hello, after which Kara had to scrub her face free of Lucy’s lipstick, she helped Kara get dressed. Kara was doing up her tie in the mirror while Lucy smoothed out her dress shirt when she saw a look pass over Lucy’s face.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Lucy shifted uncomfortably. “You’re going to a hotel tonight with your cover girlfriend?”

_ Oh _ , Kara realised,  _ she’s jealous. Or worried? _ She quickly moved to quell her fears. “Well, uh, you know, if it’s any consolation, overnight missions usually involve Hank and a whole lot of firearms, so...nothing romantic about it.”

Lucy gave a small laugh and nodded, handing Kara her suit jacket. She said nothing else as Kara pulled on her shoes (hand stitched Italian leather, thank you CIA) and her watch with the homing beacon. They were walking out the front door to head to Hank’s when Lucy finally spoke up again. 

“So...what’s this Lena like? Is she pretty?”

Kara froze with her key in the lock. How the hell was she supposed to answer that without making Lucy feel worse? If she said yes, Lucy would be jealous or insecure. But if she said no, well, A) she would be lying, and B) Lucy would be seeing Lena in a second anyway so…

She swallowed and continued locking the door. “Um, well…” she could feel a nervous ramble coming on but she was powerless to stop it. “I guess I could understand how, say, a typical heterosexual male or a typical homosexual female, or-- or a typical bisexual male or female, or--" she stopped at the look Lucy gave her. "I mean, I guess I can see how one might find her aesthetically pleasing, you know?” She continued on before Lucy could answer as they turned to walk toward Hank’s door. “And if someone were to ask me, “Kara, technically, objectively, do you find your CIA handler Lena attractive?” Then I might say, “technically, objectively…sure?”

Lucy stared at her with an eyebrow raised. “Uh huh.” 

Kara stared at her for a moment, then turned back to Hank’s apartment. If they could just get there, then this conversation could be over.

“So, all those missions you go on, it’s not exciting and romantic?”

Kara was quiet for a minute until they reached the apartment. Then she turned back to Lucy and placed her hands on her shoulders, thumbs caressing her skin. 

“Look, you’ve got it all wrong, okay? There is nothing about this job that is glamorous or--or sexy. Okay?”

Lucy gave her a soft, relieved smile and nodded. Kara smiled back and then pushed open Hank’s door, letting Lucy in first. She nearly bowled Lucy over, as the shorter woman had come to an abrupt stop in front of her. She looked up to see what had caught her attention and saw… _ Lena _ .

Lena, who was standing in the living room in a short, skin tight, red dress, fishnet tights, and knee high leather boots. Lena, who had one leg propped up on the coffee table as she tucked a small silver gun with a pearl handle into the top of her knee high leather boot. Lena, who had her hair curled and pinned back behind her ear, allowing for a direct line of sight to her long pale neck, and by extension, her ample chest. Lena, whose blood red lipstick and dark eye makeup matched her dress and popped against her creamy pale skin. 

Kara froze at the sight, eyes wide, and felt a familiar warmth twist low in her stomach, followed by a flush of embarrassment at that fact. This was it. This was how she died. A combination of being incredibly turned on by Lena’s current look, as well as having her current girlfriend and her ex...something in the same room together. She tried to pull her eyes away from Lena’s long legs as the one propped on the table lowered to the floor.

Lena smiled at Lucy and put her leg back down, walking over to the pair, hand extended. “Hi, I’m Lena. Kara’s told me so much about you!”

Lucy shook her hand, but was too stunned to speak. She turned to Kara and whispered, “ _ Sure?! _ ” Kara was at a loss for words and simply stared at Lucy in exasperation. This was the absolute opposite of what she had told Lucy. This was sexy, this was glamourous, this was… _ agonising. _ Lucy raised her voice and said, “Well, I don’t want to get in the way of whatever is happening here, so I’ll just get going.” She turned to Lena. “It’s nice to meet you, Lena.” She turned back to Kara. “Call me later.” She reached up and pulled Kara into a searing kiss, clearly trying to stake her claim.

Lena looked away and went back to prepping her materials. As soon as Lucy left, she tossed a go-bag to Kara and immediately went into briefing her, trying to gloss over any awkwardness.

Try as she might though, she couldn’t help but notice how Kara kept getting distracted by her outfit, and even though she liked to think she was a consummate professional, she couldn’t help but enjoy the fluster that seemed to overcome the blonde every time she caught herself staring. She had to repeat the briefing three times before Kara got it all, and Lena tried not to notice the way the woman kept rubbing her thighs together, her fingers twitching against her pants, as she sat at Hank’s desk, as if she was itching to reach out and touch her.

Lena didn’t blame her. She was having trouble herself with not getting distracted by the way Kara’s pants cupped her ass, or the way the slim fit suit hugged her unexpectedly strong arms. But this was not her first rodeo and she was much better at shoving those feelings aside than Kara was. By the time they were in the van driving to the hotel, she was sure Kara was going to combust.

They made their way through the hotel lobby, Hank trailing behind them with their bags, dressed as a hotel employee. Kara waited until they were safely in the elevator before bursting out, “Was it absolutely necessary for you to dress up like---like a…” she seemed to be having trouble finding the right word.

“Like an escort?” Lena supplied helpfully, arching a brow.

“Yeah! Like an escort! And why exactly would debonair superspy Kara Dawson be paying you to have sex with me-- _ her _ ?!”

“The Waldron is notorious for being a place for high end businessmen to have their trysts. It’s our cover, so  _ sell it _ .”

The elevator doors opened and Lena linked her arm through Kara’s, strutting to the door. Kara fumbled with the room key. As soon as they were all inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. They all opened up their go-bags and took out their tactical gear, taking turns changing. Soon, Kara was dressed in black pants, a black t-shirt, and all-black Chucks. She felt very spy-like.

Hank tapped into the surveillance cameras to check out the security around Dr. Morrow’s room.

“Alright, I got the security feed. Like we thought, it looks like the FBI has Morrow’s room on lockdown. We won’t be asking permission before we slip in, we’ll just enter through the ventilation system.”

He checked the schematics for the route to Morrow’s room, then propped up a chair underneath the ceiling vent and stood on it to open the cover, pulling himself up into the shaft. He reached down and took Lena’s hand, pulling her up after him, then did the same for Kara. He took the lead of the group, sliding along the air shaft on his belly, pistol in hand, Lena and Kara following behind. 

Kara struggled along, palming the aluminum paneling with both hands and pushing herself forward, panting. “Hey, quick question: how long is this going to take?”

“What’s the matter, Danvers? Got a hot date?” Hank sniped back to her.

“Actually yes,” Kara panted, pushing herself along. She was trying not to notice Lena’s body moving in front of her, her perfectly round ass moving up and down as she slid gracefully through the air vent. Kara jerked her head to remove Lena’s ass from her line of vision and slammed her head on the roof of the air shaft.

“OW!”

Lena twisted around to check on her. “You okay?” Her voice was filled with sweet concern.

“Why don’t you just call ahead and let them know we’re coming,” Hank snapped.

Kara gripped her head until the stars went away and then continued moving forward. “Sorry,” she grumbled.

“Idiot,” Hank mumbled to himself.

“I’m just trying to figure out what time I’ll be home,” said Kara, her voice breaking as she exerted herself.

“Well, just do the cover math,” said Lena, as she army-crawled forward. “How long would it take for a businessman to have sex with a prostitute?”

They reached a corner in the air duct and Kara tried to round it gracefully, but her long legs became wedged in one section, her midsection in another. She could feel her phone stabbing her leg in her pocket, and she reached down to adjust it.  _ Stupid phone, _ she thought, frustration piquing.

***

Lucy lay in her hotel room, thinking of how Kara’s mission was going. She couldn’t believe mild-mannered nerd Kara was a  _ spy. _ She giggled at the thought. She found it kind of sexy, and then worried that Kara’s handler would think so too. She quickly dismissed the thought. She didn’t have to worry about Lena, however hot she was. Kara said there was nothing there, and she had no choice but to believe her.

Her phone rang and she pulled herself out of bed, over to her purse. It was Kara. She answered with a smile, “Hey you, how’s it going?”

There was some muffled movement on the other end and then Kara’s breathless voice came through. 

_ “Lena, do you think---it shouldn’t take us more than an hour to have sex from start to finish, right?” _

_ “Uh huh.” _

There was a pause. Lucy’s jaw dropped. So much for nothing to worry about. Had Kara really buttdialed her while her and her handler were fucking? She felt tears well up in her eyes as an anger filled her chest.

_ “And…begin.” _

Lucy couldn’t stop listening. She wanted to throw the phone down in disgust, but she just couldn’t.

_ “What--what am I doing wrong here?”  _ Kara’s voice filtered through her thoughts again, along with muffled movements.

_ “Well, just---just move your hips a little to the left,”  _ came Lena’s reply.

More muffled movement. A grunt. A muffled  _ ‘ow!’ _

_ “This is way more exhausting than I thought it would be.” _

_ “Well, we can’t just race right through it!” _

_ “You mean your knees aren’t hurting,”  _ asked Kara in an incredulous tone.  _ “What, did you go to a school to learn how to do this?”  _

She heard Kara panting breathlessly on the other end, followed by a muffled groan and she finally decided she’d heard enough, hanging up the phone. She threw it down on the bed and stared at it, trying to figure out her next course of action.

***

Kara shifted her weight and pulled her legs out of the painful split they were in as she finally made it around the corner of the duct. She checked the timer she had started on her watch and saw she’d already lost significant time trying to get through the ducts. There was no way this was taking less than an hour. She sighed and kept crawling.

Hank signalled them when they reached the vent above Morrow’s room and swung the cover open, dropping down into the room silently. Lena followed behind him, landing with a soft thump, like a lithe cat. Kara struggled forward, pulling herself to the opening. She tried to turn her body so that she could drop down feet first, but she got caught.

She heard Lena’s muffled, “What are you doing up there?!” before she shouted, “Help!” and found herself falling out of the air vent, landing flat on her back on the floor below. Hank and Lena shushed her and waited for any sign of movement outside the door.

Hank scowled at her and whispered, “Jesus, Kara, shut up! It’s the FBI: they’re dumb, not deaf!” He helped pull her to her feet. They began quietly searching the room, pulling apart Morrow’s things. Kara was dumping one of his suitcases on the bed when her phone began to ring. Hank and Lena turned around and stared at her in exasperation.

“Sorry!!” she whispered, pulling it out of her pocket. It was Winn. She rolled her eyes. How many times would he call her in the middle of a high stakes mission. She declined the call and made a show of silencing her phone and shoved it back into her pocket.

She crept over to the cabinet under the mini bar and found a small box. As soon as her eyes landed on it, she flashed. She gasped, picking up the box and turning back to Hank and Lena. She waved frantically, trying to get their attention. When they looked up at her, she held up the box and pointed to it repeatedly, a look of shock on her face.

They placed it on the table and were just starting to take a look at it when they heard silenced gunshots from outside the door. Hank quickly cupped his hands for Lena to step in and tossed her up into the vent again. He gestured for Kara to step forward and do the same, but Kara fell down onto his shoulders and struggled to pull herself up into the shaft. Lena grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from the entrance so that Hank could have room to pull himself up. He quietly closed the vent cover, just as an agent entered the room. Lena led the way back to the vent over their room and dropped down, helping Kara up when she jumped out. 

Hank dropped and began packing up their equipment. “Does the word ‘silent’ have a different meaning in geek that I’m not aware of?”

Kara’s shoulders dropped. “Look, I’m sorry. I thought it was on vibrate. At least I got the list!”

Hank rolled his eyes and continued packing up. Kara turned to Lena, who was examining the box for an opening. The top of the box was covered in tiles with foreign numerals on them, with one space left empty. She moved closer to the agent and leaned toward her.

“It’s a Venetian puzzle box. Very popular with Renaissance spies,” she joked.

“It’s locked,” Lena replied with a frown, setting it back down on the table.

Kara took the box from her. “Hey, the running, jumping, shooting people part of the job--that’s all you guys, but the puzzles? That’s all me!”

She began to swipe the tiles around quickly. “You see, you’d think it would just be numbers one through twelve chronologically, but actually these boxes use a complicated Fibonacci sequence…” she trailed off as she concentrated on getting the right combination. Her fingers flew across the tiles as she swiped them back and forth. She was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t notice Lena move closer to her until she was almost pressed against her side. 

The agent watched her work, glancing up at the blonde’s face, deep in concentration, a crinkle forming between her brows. There was so much more to Kara than she knew. This must have been what Kara had meant when she said Lucy knew the real her. Someone that knew that Kara loved puzzles and knew the Fibonacci sequence. As she stared up at the blonde, she heard a click, and the box unlocked.

“You did it!” She grinned up at Kara, who smiled back down at her, her eyes crinkling in the corners.

“Let’s see what we got,” she said, opening the box slowly. Hank looked up from his packing in interest.

Kara and Lena stared down at the contents of the box. It was practically empty, save for a small silver mechanism on the left side. Kara and Lena leaned down to examine it when it suddenly released a large cloud of fine pink powder directly into their faces.

Kara gagged and Lena screamed, “Hank, get out!”

Hank slipped backwards toward the door, eyes wide. “I’ll be right back with a containment unit!” He flung the door open and left quickly.

“What--what is it?!” Kara shouted, rubbing her eyes. “Get it off me!”

Lena tried not to panic. Maybe it was a non-lethal substance. Maybe she hadn’t just got her asset killed. She gripped the bottom of Kara’s black t-shirt and began pulling it up over her head, revealing a black sports bra underneath. “Take your clothes off! Get in the shower now! Quick!” She yanked off her own shirt and began fussing with her belt as she ran to the bathroom. She pulled off her pants, as Kara came running up behind her, clamoring and shouting out panicked words that she couldn’t catch. She turned and began undoing Kara’s belt. “Take your pants off! Hurry! Get in the shower, Kara!” 

She yanked Kara’s black chinos down and waited for her to kick them off, before shoving her into the shower stall and turning on the water. 

“Oh god! Oh god!” Kara yelled as the water turned on. “So cold! So, so cold!”

Lena jumped in after her and grabbed the bar of soap. “Here, use the soap!” She stood under the cold stream in her bra and panties and tried to wash the powder out of Kara’s face, out of her eyes, out of her hair.

Kara fumbled with the soap in her panic as she tried to scrub herself down. She picked it up and tossed it to Lena, whose hands were clearly more steady. Lena rubbed her body down with the soap, scrubbing her harshly. She leaned Kara’s head forward to soap up her hair, trying to get all of the powder out.

Kara became aware of Lena’s breasts, as her face was shoved between them so that Lena could reach her hair. She jerked her head away and began babbling apologies that made no sense and that Lena clearly didn’t care about in the moment. She rinsed herself off and began trying to clear Lena’s face like the agent had done for her. Lena handed her the soap and turned around, so that Kara could scrub her back. She began scrubbing the bar of soap in circles before she was distracted by the constellation of freckles that peppered Lena’s alabaster skin. Her scrubbing slowed, as she suddenly became aware of the fact that they were both nearly naked, in the shower together. She let a hand fall down Lena’s spine, before shaking herself and continuing to scrub.  _ Now was not the time. _

When Lena felt they were sufficiently clean, she shut off the water and stepped out, tossing Kara a towel. Hopefully Henshaw would get back soon with the Hazmat team. She began to dry herself off. Kara was rubbing herself down with the towel when a knock sounded at the door.

“Get the door! That’s Hank. We have no time to waste, quick!”

Kara sprinted toward the door, wet hair flying behind her, still in her bra and boxer briefs. She flung it open and her eyes widened. 

Lucy stood staring at her, mouth open. 

“Lucy?”

“Kara,” she answered, a look of resignation appearing on her face.

Kara frowned. “How did you--”

“The bellman sent me to your room,” she said sadly, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

Kara gasped out a laugh. She wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t let Lucy in, not until she got the okay from the containment team, but she could tell that something was bothering Lucy. She stammered out a few words before she saw Lucy glance past her and a look of pure betrayal coated her features. She turned around to see what she was looking at and saw Lena walking up behind her, dark hair falling loosely over her shoulders as she stood in her black lacy lingerie. Immediately, Kara understood.

She turned back to Lucy quickly.

“I knew it,” said Lucy, quietly.

“Lucy! No, wait! Wait!”

But Lucy had already started down the hallway. Kara raced out into the hallway. 

“Lucy,  _ please! _ It’s not what you think! I might be dying!”

Lucy kept walking, never once looking back.

***

Kara paced around the hotel room as Hank ran the substance through the spectrometer. She chewed on her nails as she thought back to Lucy’s betrayed features. She scratched at her throat underneath her robe, which she thought she could feel closing up. Not only was she likely to die very soon, but now her girlfriend would think she died a cheater.

“Um, how--how long does this thing take,” she asked Hank anxiously, “because I think--” she cut herself off and turned to Lena, “how does Lucy pick  _ that _ exact moment to walk in on us? I mean, wh-what are the odds?”

Lena frowned and pulled her robe closed tighter around her. She felt incredibly guilty, and they hadn’t even done anything. But she had seen Lucy’s face, seen the tears in her eyes, and now she was witnessing Kara’s anxiety-induced ramble and it was all just becoming a bit too much.

“Does--does this--does this give us the antidote,” Kara continued, not waiting for an answer, “because you know, I think--I think I feel my throat closing up on me right now.”

Hank rolled his eyes at her as the spectrometer bleeped. He looked down at the result:  **NO THREAT--EDIBLE** . He smirked and licked his pinky, dipping it into the powder to collect some.

Kara stared down at the back of the screen, unable to see the result. She began to hyperventilate. “What--what is it? Flesh-eating bacteria? Anthrax? Am I gonna die?” Her voice rose higher with every word.

Hank licked his finger and his lips smacked as he removed his finger. “Nope, but you can add ice and give it to little kids to sell on street corners.”

Kara’s brow furrowed. “I knew it,” she muttered, turning to Lena, “Drugs,” she whimpered.

“It’s powdered fruit punch, you idiot,” Hank snarked.

Kara snapped her head back to him. “Wait. So, not only did we  _ not _ get the list of Leviathan agents, but now Lucy is never going to speak to me again because she caught me naked, rinsing off  _ fruit punch _ with another woman?!” 

Lena, who hadn’t said anything this whole time, moved around Kara to look at the screen for herself, dipping her finger into the powder and bringing it to her lips.

Hank packed up the equipment and smirked. “Common spy problem.”

“Really,” Kara scowled back. She looked over at Lena, who was avoiding her gaze. She opened her mouth to speak, but the agent turned and went to get changed before she could say a word.

***

Kara sat behind the Nerd Herd desk and dialed her phone anxiously, sighing as it went directly to voicemail. 

“Hey Lucy, it’s me again--Kara--with lucky message number four. Listen, I just want to say I totally understand why you’re not calling me back, because if I saw what you saw, then I’d be thinking what you’re thinking--not that I presume to know what you’re thinking. It’s just a logical reaction to think what you saw would be what you think, if in fact that’s what you’re thinking…”

She squeezed her eyes closed and facepalmed. “Wait--actually I can explain a lot better than that if you’d just call me back. Please. Just--at your earliest convenience. Bye.”

She jabbed the button on her screen to end the call and put her head in her hands. This was a mess. Lucy wasn’t speaking to her because she thought she was cheating with Lena. She felt guilty, when she hadn’t even done anything because she had made Lucy  _ think _ she’d done something, and if she was honest with herself, she almost wished something  _ had _ happened with Lena for it to be worth all this mess. She mentally slapped herself.  _ What is wrong with you? You don’t deserve  _ **_either_ ** _ of them with that kind of thinking. _

The bell rang on the desk in front of her and she looked up to see Lucy in front of her, her mouth in a thin line. She gaped at the shorter woman. “Lucy…wha…” 

“You wanted a chance to explain. Let’s hear it.”

Kara jumped up and grabbed her hand, pulling her through the store to the back room, in front of the storage cage.

“Thank you, Lucy. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it.”

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest. “You have three seconds to convince me that what I saw wasn’t what I saw.”

Kara winced and sucked on her teeth. “Ahhh...that’s gonna be a little tough because I can’t get into specifics without you having to know, like, really high level top secret government…”

She trailed off at the look on Lucy’s face.

“We broke into Morrow’s room to look for some of his research and we found this box, but when we opened it, it sprayed this stuff all over me and Lena. So when you saw the two of us in our underpants, what you really saw were two people trying to wash off what we thought was poison, but what really turned out to be powdered fruit punch!” She rambled out in a single breath, before inhaling sharply.

She glanced up at Lucy with a pained smile. There was no way Lucy was going to believe her. It was all too farfetched. She waited for the implosion.

Lucy frowned. “What kind of fruit punch?”

Kara stared at her in disbelief. “What? Are you messing with me?”

“No, no I believe you, Kara.”

Kara’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Really? Because I was listening to what I said to you just now, and I sounded completely ridiculous.”

Lucy shook her head. “Thomas was  _ crazy _ paranoid. You couldn’t open an email from him without solving a puzzle first. If he cared about something, he would have hidden it. Maybe the fruit punch was a clue.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Okay. Okay, we have to go somewhere. But...before we do...how do you feel about blindfolds?”

Lucy gave her a smirk. “In what capacity?”

Kara gulped, undoing her tie. “In the ‘I need to take you to a secret CIA base and you can’t see where it is’ capacity.”

“Well then, I guess I like them fine.”

Kara grinned and wrapped her tie around Lucy’s head before leading her out the back of the store and toward the weiner hut. 

The door to the base hissed open and closed before Kara undid the blindfold. Lena and Hank appeared around the corner.

“You brought her here?!” Hank growled.

“Um,” Kara started, unsure of how to explain her bringing Lucy here.

“Kara, it’s not a secret location if you invite people over!”

“I know! I know, okay. But Lucy here, Lucy knows about Morrow’s puzzles!” She turned to Lucy. “Would you please tell them what you told me about how the fruit punch might actually be a clue?”

Lucy turned to Hank. “Thomas’ paranoia manifested itself in obscure ways. Odd literary references, mathematical proofs...the lock for his computer was a randomly selected piece of Vogon poetry.”

“So what do you think the fruit punch might mean,” asked Lena, arms crossed over her chest.

“What kind of fruit punch was it?”

“I guess traditional fruit punch?”

“You guess?” Lucy grimaced. “Please tell me you got the exact formula…”

The three of them shared looks. Lucy winced. “Okay, um, is there a mass spectrometer around?”

“Hank! Get the mass spectrometer!” Kara ordered, grinning at Lucy. “Wait, do we have one of those?”

Hank rolled his eyes and walked away. Returning a few minutes later with the equipment, while Lena grabbed Morrow’s puzzle box.

Kara stood next to Lucy while she worked on running the powder through the mass spectrometer to get the exact brand of fruit punch. Lena and Hank stood off to the side and Hank leaned down and whispered to Lena, “I kinda get what the dork sees in her,” with a smirk. Lena frowned but did not engage. She didn’t need Hank to see the inner turmoil Lucy’s presence was causing her.

“And now,” said Lucy, typing something into the computer, “we’ll run the powder’s chemical composition against a list of known products.”

The computer trilled as it ran an analysis, pinging when it found a match:  **Rootin’ Raspberry HI-C Fruit Punch.**

“Rootin’ Raspberry? Maybe it has something to do with a football team? Or cheerleaders?” Lucy said, frowning.

“What about international waters?” Lena asked, brow furrowed.

“HI-C...high sea! That’s good!”

“Wait guys,” Kara said, realisation dawning on her, “this is a music box. It’s not high sea, S-E-A. It’s high C!” She formed the letter C with her hand. “Like a musical note! Where’s a pitch pipe when you need one?!”

Kara pulled out her phone to begin looking up a high C note when---

“HAAAAAAAAAAA!”

All three women whipped their heads around to look at Hank, who had just belted out a high pitch tone.

There was a click and a small drawer popped out inside the music box.

Kara stared down at the box in disbelief before turning a questioning look back to Hank.

“Choir boy,” was all he said in explanation.

The three women stared at him, mouths slightly agape.

“What?!” He asked in exasperation. “I wasn’t  _ hatched. _ ”

Kara snickered and then reached into the box, pulling the small drawer open. A pair of opera glasses lay in the velvet lined drawer. “Check it out! Opera glasses!”

She held them up to her face and began to flash.

“Oh,” she gasped, “no, actually they’re not.” She turned the glasses over between her fingers, pulling the handle off the glasses. “This is a key. A key to a very super secret lockbox. The Culper ring used to use stuff like that to pass along information during the Revolutionary War.”

Lucy smiled up at her. “Wow, Kara, that’s impressive.”

Kara grinned back. She caught a glimpse of Lena out of the corner of her eye, shifting uncomfortably before she glanced away from the two of them. She almost frowned when Hank cut in.

“Yeah, nice going there Brainiac. Don’t get too full of yourself yet. If this is the key, where’s the lock?”

Kara held up the lenses. “The question, Hank, is where’s the opera?”

***

Hank and Lena made their way down the aisle toward the stage at the National City Opera House.

“You’re not concerned about involving a civilian in a covert government investigation?” Lena asked.

“Ehh, the girls’ personal knowledge of Morrow makes her of use to us. You sure you’re not just jealous that Kara’s found herself a new piece of asset?”

Lena rolled her eyes and glared at him, but didn’t answer. 

Hank came to a stop in front of the stage and looked around the theater. “Where is the doofus?”

His eyes trailed up to the balcony where Kara and Lucy were entering one of the VIP boxes.

“Thomas loved the opera,” said Lucy, pulling back the curtain at the entrance of the box. “This was his box.”

“Whoa!” Kara gasped, staring out over the theater, down to the stage. “Not bad! You really feel like you’re on top of the action.” She began looking around for something that would fit the key they had found.

“How do you know what you’re looking for?”

“Well,” she said, pulling the key out of her pocket, “it’ll match the end of this key.” She stared down at it and saw it had three prongs on the end, and she started searching for something with three holes. She glanced down at the floor and saw a small hatch with three holes that looked like they would line up. To the untrained eye it would look like a small electrical conduit.

“Ooh! Something like this.” She knelt down and ran her fingers over the hatch. She smirked up at Lucy. “Shall we see what we got?”

She stuck the key into the outlet and heard a clicking. She pulled the hatch open and found a box inside, which she gently removed from its hiding place. “Bingo.”

She stood up and shouted down to the agents who were waiting for her. “Hey, we got it!!”

She led Lucy down to the stage to find Hank and Lena, setting the box on a table on the stage. 

Her phone rang and she pulled it out to check: Winn, again. She declined the call and silenced the ringer.

Hank carefully opened the lid to the box and staggered backward when he saw what was inside. Inside the box was what was very clearly a bomb, counting down from a minute and 10 seconds. Just beside the timer sat three rows of five blocks, all printed with sheet music on their faces.

“Henshaw, that’s a bomb!” Lena said, aghast. “Okay, Kara, come on, let’s go. We gotta go!” She grabbed Kara’s arm and began pulling her toward the exit.

“Wait, this doesn’t make any sense,” said Lucy, “Thomas wanted to help people, not hurt them! This isn’t a bomb, it’s a clue!”

Kara gently pulled her arm out of Lena’s grasp and moved to stand next to Lucy, examining the puzzle together. 

Lena’s eyes widened. “No, Lucy! If it looks like a bomb, and it ticks like a bomb, then  _ generally _ it’s a bomb!!”

“No, this is a puzzle we have to solve before the timer runs out!” Lucy shot back, focusing on the task.

“And what if you’re wrong?” Lena asked, shooting a nervous look at Kara.

Lucy smirked up at the agent. “That doesn’t happen.”

Lena gaped at her in disbelief. Surely this woman wasn’t willing to play with all of their lives, plus whomever else was in the opera house, over some arrogant assertion of her skill level? She found herself staring up at Kara, mouth still slightly open, and she found Kara looking back, an apologetic look on her face.

“Look,” Kara began, “it’s a music thing, right? So, what’s the opera?”

“Verdi’s  _ La Traviata _ ,” Lucy replied, already moving the blocks around.

“Well, how does that go? You played violin, right?” Kara bent down and started examining the blocks too, trying to call on her own musical knowledge.

Lucy began humming the score, and Kara picked it up quickly, helping her sort the blocks into the correct place. 

“I forgot, you played the flute,” Lucy giggled.

Kara blushed, glancing up quickly at Lena before quickly looking back down at the puzzle again. “Let’s not talk about that.”

The timer counted down from thirty seconds. Lena, who had begun pacing, stopped abruptly. “Okay, it’s not happening! Let’s go, Kara!” She grabbed Kara’s arm and began pulling her away from the bomb again.

“Wait, Lena! Lucy has yet to be wrong, okay? If she says it’s not a bomb, I believe her.” She yanked her arm away and returned to Lucy’s side, helping her solve the puzzle.

Lena stared at the pair in horror, watching as the timer counted down, struggling with whether or not to just force them out of the theatre or to trust their judgment. 

A click snapped her out of her dilemma. She looked up to see the timer had stopped at 0:07. 

Kara reached into the box and pulled something small out of the box.

“It’s a flashdrive! This must be it!” She held it up triumphantly. “That’s how we do that!” She turned to Lucy, pulling her into a tight hug. “Lucy, that was all you!”

Lucy giggled and pulled her into a kiss, murmuring sweet nothings to the blonde. 

Hank grimaced at the display of affection and Lena turned her back on the pair, closing her eyes. She could still hear the sounds of their lips moving on each other and she suddenly wished that she was deaf. Hank moved next to her. “Ah, you gotta love love.” She opened her eyes to find him smirking at her. She gave him a tight smile and a noncommittal, ‘hm’ before heading toward the door.

***

Hank and Lena stood in front of the monitor as they spoke to General Haley.

“The flashdrive containing Morrow’s list is encrypted with a 512 bit AES cypher. Right now, the computer is trying every possible key against the encrypted data. When it finds a match, we’ll have the identity of every Leviathan with whom Morrow was in contact.”

“How long will that take,” asked Lena.

“Could be hours, could be days,” Haley responded. “Excellent work, you two. Please thank the asset for her service.” She frowned. “Where is Kara?”

Hank snickered. “My guess? Rounding second base.”

Lena inhaled deeply and tried not to let her annoyance with Hank’s heckling show on her face. She wasn’t sure she did a very good job. 

***

Kara sighed contentedly as Lucy pulled her down on top of her, pulling on the back of her neck to bring her into a hot kiss. Kara cupped her cheek and licked into the brunette’s mouth, eliciting a soft moan at the action. 

Lucy smiled into the kiss and pulled back. “You were brilliant tonight.”

“No you,” was all Kara could manage to get out as she ground her hips down into Lucy’s.

“Mm-mm, all you,” Lucy laughed, reaching down to undo Kara’s pants.

Kara jerked away. “I can’t--I can’t do this.”

“You don’t have to do a thing, I’ll handle everything,” Lucy husked, reaching up to pull her back down.

Kara groaned in frustration, pulling her into another searing kiss. Lucy’s hands began to wander down her body and she pulled away again. “That’s--that’s very gracious of you, but that’s not--” she jumped off the bed and walked over to the clock on the wall that she knew housed a surveillance camera. “What I’m saying is, I can’t do  _ this _ .” She motioned at the camera in exasperation. All she wanted was a night off with her girlfriend, was that really too much to ask? It wasn’t like she could just take the clock off the wall. Hank would be over in a second to tell her to hang it back up. She sighed. Lucy sat on the bed watching her, brow furrowed.

An idea popped into her head. She straightened up. “Hey! Come here.” Lucy gave her a look of confusion as Kara grasped her hands and pulled her close. Kara looked her directly in the eyes. “Nerd Herd. Tomorrow.”

Lucy narrowed her eyes. “What time?”

Kara thought for a moment. “Take the latent heat of aquatic fusion…”

Lucy smirked. “Okay, is that in calories per gram?”

“Of course,” Kara drawled with a grin. “And then subtract the atomic number of thulium. Got it?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.” Kara kissed her once more before sending her home. Confident that Hank wouldn’t be able to (or wouldn't try to) crack her nerd code, she went to bed with a smile on her face.

***

The next day, Kara sought out Winn, who seemed to have been avoiding her. She finally flagged him down from his position restocking HDMI cables.

“Hey! Winn, buddy! I need you to cover for me today, I kinda need to cut out early.”

Winn finished stocking and started walking away. “I see. Big night with the lady, huh?”

Kara frowned at his dismissive attitude. “Uh...yeah. We’re sneaking off for a little romantic getaway.”

Winn continued walking, straightening shelves as he went. Kara frowned again. Something was wrong. Winn never straightened shelves. Winn did as little work as possible. He was refusing to look at her. A crinkle formed on her brow as she tried to figure out what the issue was.

“Aww that’s sweet! You and  _ Lena _ are taking a little trip together?”

Kara inhaled sharply. “Uh...yeahhhh…we’re, um…”

Winn turned sharply and glared at her. “Save it, Pinocchio, okay? I know you’re seeing Lucy.”

Kara stared at him in shock. “You--you what? How--how--you know about Lucy?”

“I saw her come in here yesterday. And apparently I’m the  _ last  _ to know about her. Nia and Brainy knew before me!” His face had betrayal and disappointment etched into his features. “I mean, come on dude, this is  _ Lucy! _ I spent  _ months  _ helping you get over her! We’re best friends, Kara. If you’re not telling me about this, then what else aren’t you telling me?”

Kara snapped her eyes up to his.  _ A lot, _ she thought sadly. She took a deep breath. “Winn, I’m so sorry buddy. I really am. And trust me, there is so much that I wish that I could tell you, but I--I can’t.”

Winn stared down at his feet. “You’ve never lied to me before.”

“Exactly. So just trust my judgement on this, okay?” Her phone dinged and she pulled it out to find a notification that Lucy had arrived. “I’m so sorry. I’ve gotta go, can you cover for me?”

“Of course I can cover for you, man, because we’re best friends and that’s what best friends do. They lie for each other...but they don’t lie  _ to  _ each other.”

Kara nodded and gave him a small smile. Winn offered a reconciliatory fist bump, but she opted for a full on hug. “Thanks buddy.”

***

Kara raced out the door and jumped into Lucy’s dark blue Porsche Carrera convertible, leaping over the unopened door. She leaned over and pulled her into a rough kiss. “Okay, let’s go!”

They sped off down the highway, the roads twisting and turning as they drove away from all their responsibilities and overbearing handlers. Kara let one hand move from Lucy’s curls, to the back of her neck, down to her thigh, and back up again, while she let the other drift in the wind. She didn’t think she had ever felt this free in her life.

After about an hour of driving, Lucy pulled off to a little gas station. They were in the middle of nowhere, completely removed from the rest of the world and all of its drama. She smiled brightly and leapt from the car. “I’m gonna grab some snacks, want anything?”

“Blue Gatorade and some gummy worms,” Lucy answered, getting out to pump.

“Coming right up!” Kara ran into the store feeling lighter than she had in months. She perused the aisles, loading up on chips, candy, chocolate, and anything else that caught her fancy. It was a vacation after all. Calories didn’t count on vacation! (Not that she ever paid attention to that stuff anyway.) She felt warm as she grabbed two bags of gummy worms for Lucy. Back in college, it seemed like Lucy was never without gummy worms. The familiarity made her heart twinge. 

She dumped her load onto the checkout counter and paid, hefting the bags out to the car. “Alright! We have blue Gatorade, we have gummy worms, and we have--”

_ “KARA, HELP!” _

Kara whipped her head toward the noise. A man was pulling Lucy toward a silver Range Rover with a gun pressed to her neck. She recognised him as the agent that had entered Morrow's room just after the trio had made their escape. 

She dropped the bags and took a step closer.

“Don’t!” The man ordered, tightening his grip on Lucy. “You have something that belongs to me.”

“What?” Kara asked dumbly, panic engulfing all of her senses and grinding her higher functions to a halt. “I don’t--I don’t have anything. I--I have snacks.” She shook herself. “Wait--why don’t you just let her go and then you can tell me what it is exactly that you’ve lost, and then maybe I can help you find it.”

“Morrow’s list. Or the girl dies.” He said it nonchalantly, as if he was talking about the weather. He turned and shoved Lucy into the car behind him. “Opera House. Midnight.” He trained his gun on Kara as he stepped back toward the driver’s seat. Kara could do nothing but watch as he sped away, Lucy as his prisoner.

***

“Have you heard from Kara,” asked Lena, fighting to keep the anxiety out of her voice. She hadn’t seen nor heard from Kara since the night before and, while she knew the blonde was probably still with Lucy, she couldn’t help but get the feeling that something was very wrong.

“No,” Hank replied, “but I’ll do a GPS search on her watch.” He typed something into the computer and the satellite popped up, the targeting system dancing around the map before a message popped up that made Lena’s heart drop. 

**Connection Not Found**

**SAT COM - OFF GRID**

“Little twerp’s gone off the grid,” Hank growled. Lena turned and dashed out of the room, grabbing her gun along the way. She jumped in her F-Type and floored it, flying through the city to Kara’s apartment.

She pulled open Kara’s window and stepped through, finding no one. She searched the rest of the apartment before jumping in her car and heading to Lucy’s hotel room, searching that too. She texted Alex and Kelly about her whereabouts, trying not to alarm them. Finally, she headed back to base, trying to quell the feeling of panic in her gut. She tried Kara’s cell again and again. Nothing. She tried Lucy’s finally. Nothing. She tried to take comfort in that -- that wherever Kara was, they were probably together. Under the immediate relief at that thought was a layer of nausea that threatened to engulf her. She shoved it down.  _ Now is not the time, _ she thought. 

***

Kara drove Lucy’s car back into the city, the engine running on fumes by the time she pulled into the parking lot. She sprinted into the Wiener hut and down to the secret base underneath, finding Hank sitting in front of the monitor, watching the computer decrypt the key.

“They took her!” She shouted at him, panting.

Hank rounded on her. “Where the hell have you been? You deliberately went off grid!!”

Kara ignored him. “Some guy just took Lucy! He said if I didn’t bring him Morrow’s list of Leviathan agents, he’s gonna kill her!!”

Hank narrowed his eyes. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“Yeah, of course it’s not, because I’m gonna bring him the list and I’m gonna get Lucy back!”

Hank rolled his eyes. “No you’re not. He’ll kill her either way.”

Kara’s eyes widened in shock. “What?! No! That can’t happen! Please, Hank, will you  _ please  _ help me?!”

Hank frowned at her, eyes narrowed, and said nothing for a moment. He breathed in deeply. “No. We’ve gotta call Washington and report it.” He pointed at Kara. “You stay right here.  _ Don’t move. _ You’ve done enough damage already!”

He turned away and pulled out his phone. Kara’s breath began to come faster and faster. This couldn’t be happening. Lucy was in the clutches of some evil doer and Hank wasn’t even considering getting her back.  _ This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have gone off the grid. I shouldn’t have tried to have a normal life with a girlfriend.  _ Her eyes danced around the room frantically, as if the answer would appear for her there.  _ Where was Lena? She would listen!  _ She looked around the room, as if she could will the agent to appear. Her eyes landed on the flashdrive, embedded into the computer that was running the decryption program. 

Kara squeezed her eyes closed. She was so going to be in trouble for this. But Lucy’s terrified face popped into her head and she dismissed whatever consequences would come to her. She reached over and yanked the flashdrive out of its port and turned to run. An alarm started going off and the base began to go into lockdown.

“Danvers,  _ no! _ ” Hank yelled, turning to stop her. She dove through the door before it locked and found herself in the corridor with Lena, the gun in the agent’s hand raised and aimed at her.

“Stop her, Luthor! Shoot her!” Hank yelled, pounding on the glass.

“Kara! Freeze! Don’t move!” Lena shouted, stepping closer. Kara turned to look at her and saw the worry and fear in her gaze. “Kara, if you try and take that, I have to stop you.”

Kara backed away toward the exterior door before it could close. “Please, Lena. Just let me go.” 

Lena stepped closer, keeping her gun raised. 

“This is treason, Danvers!” Hank growled. “Shoot her, Luthor! Take her down!”

Kara backed through the door just before it closed. She looked directly into Lena’s eyes, trying to convey all of her apologies, her thanks--everything she could muster.

Lena lowered her gun and ran to the door, staring at Kara with a mix of concern, disbelief, and anger. 

“I’m sorry, Lena,” Kara said quietly. “I have to. It’s Lucy.” Then she turned and ran out of the base, leaving Lena stunned and near tears.

She sprinted to the Nerd Herd and into the break room, yanking open her locker to get the keys to the Herder, since Lucy’s car was out of gas. She turned away from the lockers and went to leave, when a Call of Duty sticker on Winn’s locker caught her eye. She did a double-take and then an idea began to form in her mind…

***

Lena typed rapidly on the computer until the alarm system shut down and the doors hissed back open.

Hank stormed into the room, coming straight for her. “You could have shot her!”

“She’s the  _ Intersect _ , Hank!” She replied angrily, trying to get all systems back online so she could track Kara’s location.

“Is that  _ all _ she is? I mean, jesus Luthor, you could have at least kneecapped her!”

Lena ignored him, bringing up the GPS to Kara’s car. “I have a trace on Kara. She’s heading downtown.”

“You get the car, I’ll get the guns,” said Hank, racing to the armory.

***

Kara zipped down the street before coming to a hard stop in front of the National City Opera House. She grabbed the flashdrive off of the passenger seat and took the steps two at a time to the front of the building. Luckily, the doors were unlocked, probably thanks to the kidnapper, and she pushed through them, sprinting through the empty lobby towards the theatre.

She made her way quietly onto the stage, looking around for any sign of Lucy or the kidnapper. Suddenly, the two of them appeared stage right, in the same position Kara had last seen them, Lucy held in front of the man with his gun pressed to her neck.

“Lucy!” She exclaimed, stepping toward her.

“Kara,” she breathed tearfully.

“Can we dispense with the pillow talk and just do this,” the man said, taking a slow step forward.

“Yeah. Yeah! Okay, okay, just---just let her go--”

“Not so fast. You’ve seen mine. Now show me yours.”

Kara started to get annoyed and frantic. “That’s  _ fine _ . But first I need to know that she’s going to be safe!”

The man shook his head. “That’s not how this works. Hand over the list or I shoot you both.”

“That’s not how this works either,” a familiar voice rang out from in front of the stage. Kara looked over to find Hank approaching the stage, gun trained on the kidnapper. “Go wait in the car, Kara.”

“No, don’t move, Kara,” ordered the kidnapper. “You stay right where you are. I have a sharpshooter trained on you.”

Kara gasped in panic and began glancing around the balcony boxes, looking for the sniper. She finally spotted him in what used to be Morrow’s box. She felt the panic rise in her chest. How were they going to get out of this? 

A grunt came from the opera box and she looked up just in time to see Lena jump over the row of seats and land a solid kick to the sniper’s head. He fell sideways before throwing a punch, which she blocked. She grabbed the rifle and used it to knock him in the head three times, the third knocking him off balance and over the railing to the theatre seats below. Lena set the rifle back in position and settled down behind it, training the sights on the kidnapper.

“Now I have the sniper,” Hank smirked.

“I still have the advantage,” said the kidnapper, but the cool confidence in his voice was gone. “Somebody give me the list, or I shoot Kara!” He pointed his gun at the blonde.

“Yeah, go on and shoot her,” said Hank, pulling a second gun from it’s holster and raising it to point it at Kara. “You know, I was thinking of shooting her myself!”

“What? What! Are you crazy? Why would you--” Kara stammered out frantically. “Nobody! How about  _ nobody _ shoots Kara!”

“I’m not  _ Lena _ , Kara.” Hank turned and glared at her. She froze under his words and his penetrating stare. “You give him that list? I  _ will _ end your miserable existence.”

“It’s your choice,” said the kidnapper, “would you rather I shoot the girl?” He stuck the gun back in Lucy’s neck, who began to whimper.

“No! I would much rather you point the gun back at me please!”

“Nah, go ahead and shoot the girl,” Hank drawled nonchalantly, “Some situations, collateral damage is unavoidable.”

Kara stared at him in shock. “No! It’s  _ always _ avoidable! Look, here it is, okay? Here’s the list.” She pulled the flashdrive out of her pocket.

“Danvers, no!” Hank shouted.

Kara turned to him and gave him a subtle wink. “You have a better plan? Because I’m not okay with collateral damage.” She turned back to the kidnapper. “So, here you go. Here’s your list of all the Leviathan agents.” She slid the drive across the floor until the man stopped it with his shoe.

“Well, Mr. Henshaw. Leviathan would prefer you  _ not _ know who we have inside the government.” He stomped on the drive under his shoe, crushing the plastic into little pieces. He grinned. “The show must go on!” Then he shoved Lucy at Hank and Kara and sprinted off the stage, with Hank and Lena firing after him. 

Lucy fell into Kara’s arms, who pulled her in close and stroked her hair, murmuring soft affirmations to her. “You’re okay, you’re okay.”

Lena watched from the balcony as Kara comforted Lucy, and she felt her heart twist and fall into her stomach. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to shove her emotions away. She opened them again and began disassembling the sniper rifle, pointedly avoiding looking at the stage. 

***

As the CIA and NSA teams filtered in to gather evidence and take statements, Kara got pulled away from Lucy by Hank, which left Lena to take her to the paramedics to check her over.

“I’m fine, I promise,” Lucy said as they walked down the steps toward the back of an open ambulance. “Is this a normal day at the office for you?”

“Yeah, except Hank doesn’t usually sing,” Lena said with a chuckle.

Lucy smiled softly. “Thank you for saving my life. I’m sorry for not trusting you with Kara.”

Lena crossed her arms over her chest and arched a brow. “You wanna pay me back?”

Lucy stared at her with eyes wide.

Lena fixed her with a penetrating stare. “Don’t hurt her again.”

Lucy’s shoulders dropped. “I won’t. I wouldn’t. I care about Kara.”

Lena nodded and glanced down at the ground. “Me too. But it’s my job to protect her.” She looked up and stared hard into Lucy’s eyes, willing her to understand. “From  _ anything. _ ”

***

Hank stood backstage berating Kara with a finger in her face, eyes glaring, jaw set, and teeth grinding.

“First you’ll be arrested for crimes against your country, then I’m gonna take you to Gitmo and hang you up by your fingernails--”

“I appreciate the threats,” Kara cut in, “I really do, but can I please explain my--”

“Explain what?!” Hank shouted. “How you gave away classified intel to the enemy? Now we’re never gonna know the identities of those Leviathan agents!”

“Ye of little faith, jeez Hank!” Kara chuckled. “Come on, buddy. Do you really think that I would give the guy the list to destroy before I made myself a  _ copy? _ ” She pulled Winn's game copier out of her pocket and held it up so Hank could see it.

Hank took it from her and stared in disbelief. “What?”

“Q-36 game copier. Thankfully, Winn is too cheap and unethical to pay for his own video games.” She shoved her hands in her pockets and smiled at him smugly. “Canada’s greatest gift since Ryan Reynolds.” 

Hank looked at her in shock. Kara smirked and walked away, leaving Hank spluttering behind her.

***

Later that night, Kara's door flew open as Lucy pushed her through it, pressing her back against it, molding herself onto her body as their lips moved across each others. Kara closed the door and cupped Lucy’s face, sliding her tongue across the brunette’s bottom lip. Lucy opened her mouth to Kara as she ripped open her Nerd Herd button up. 

“Ho!” Kara gasped. “Oh...okay.” Lucy smirked and pushed her down onto the bed, climbing on top of her.

“Wait--wait. The hotel’s already booked, so we should probably get on the road if we want to beat traffic.”

Lucy crawled her way up Kara’s body, dropping open-mouthed kisses along her body as she went. “Or...we could just start the weekend right now.”

Kara flushed, all the blood in her body heading south. “But what about the--” she pointed to the surveillance camera in the clock.

Lucy glanced at it and shrugged, climbing off of Kara, and standing in front of the lense. “I have some spy tricks of my own.” She peeled off her blouse, revealing a lacy black bra, before turning and tossing the shirt over the clock, tucking it behind the edge to hold it in place.

Then she returned to Kara and climbed on top of her, undoing her belt and pulling on her zipper. 

Kara stared at her in awe. Her confidence renewed at the thought of not having a camera pointed at them while they had sex, she rolled over and switched their positions, pinning Lucy to the sheets. Lucy moaned at the display of dominance and arched up to catch Kara’s lips in a searing kiss, tongue and teeth roaming all over her lips. Kara pulled off her watch and set it down on the nightstand. She wouldn’t be needing it this weekend. 

Her hands trailed their way up and down Lucy’s body, pulling her hips up so she could pull down her jeans, revealing a matching pair of lacy black panties. She slid her fingers under the waistband and down through Lucy’s wet heat, gathering her wetness around her fingers and making slow, tight circles around Lucy’s clit.

She detached her lips and looked directly into her eyes. “You ready?" she panted. 

Lucy pulled her lip between her teeth, “ _So ready_ .”

Kara lowered her head to catch Lucy’s lips in another hot kiss, dipping her tongue into her mouth, just as she plunged two fingers inside of her. 

Lucy gasped at the intrusion, and Kara could already feel her clench around her fingers. It wouldn’t take much -- Lucy had never taken long, not with her anyway -- before she came undone around her thick fingers. She pressed into Lucy and curled her fingers, slowly working the woman up before she began to rock her hips behind her hand, her palm pressing down on her clit. She revelled in the breathy moans the other woman made. 

As she watched -- and felt -- Lucy come undone around her, she dropped kisses to her neck, running her tongue along the column of her throat, leaving little nibbles along the way. If tonight was any indication, this was going to be a  _ very _ good weekend.

***

Across town, Hank and Lena were back at the base working on getting the decryption key running.

“Okay, the computer’s back up,” said Hank, tapping a few keys. “It’s decoding the list again. Just a matter of time before we learn the identities of Leviathan’s agents.”

They gathered their files and sat around the table, making notes and putting together dossiers as the computer finished its decryption. Hank glanced up to look at Kara’s surveillance feed just in time to see Lucy throwing her blouse over it. 

“Oh cripes, are we doing this again?” He grumbled, pulling out his phone.

“You know what? She’s had a big day, let’s let her have this one,” said Lena coolly. 

The computer pinged, indicating it was done decrypting. The names of Leviathan agents began to pop up on the screen. CIA, NSA, DHS, FBI, and every other agency seemed to have rogue agents that had infiltrated at the highest and lowest of levels. Lena and Hank made notes, and began putting together files on all of the crooked agents. 

The computer pinged: 

_ Amanda Waller, NSC -- Leviathan Agent. _

_ Elizabeth Keen, FBI -- Leviathan Agent. _

_ Michael Weston, CIA -- Leviathan Agent. _

Over and over the computer spat out names, hundreds of names, their agency pictures filling the screen.

The computer pinged again, having decrypted another name. Lena glanced up and froze, her blood running cold, mouth falling open. She whipped her head to look at Hank, who had the same look of terror on his face. 

Lena flew out of her seat and ran for the door, grabbing her gun along the way, Hank hot on her heels. Behind them the computer screen sat blinking with the latest name:

_ Lucy Lane, CIA -- Leviathan Agent. _

***

Lena burst into Kara’s apartment, gun drawn, hair flying wildly behind her as she raced to Kara’s bedroom, Hank right behind her. She opened the door so hard it slammed into the wall and left a dent. She stared into the empty room. 

They were gone.

She put a hand to her forehead and fought back the overwhelming panic that was trying to push its way out of her throat. A lump was forming there and she was trying to suppress a sob. She glanced down to the nightstand and saw Kara’s watch. She grabbed it and held it up for Hank to see. 

Kara was off the grid.

Kara was off the grid with  _ Lucy. _

Kara was off the grid with  _ Lucy  _ who was a  _ Leviathan agent. _

Lena had never felt so helpless as she did in that moment. The room was spinning, her vision was blacking out around the edges. This wasn’t just an asset that she had lost. It was  _ Kara. _ Who could at this very moment be being tortured for the secrets in her head. Or she might not even know the danger she was in yet, and could let something slip. 

She had to find her before it was too late.

***

Kara smiled as the wind whipped through her hair. She sat next to Lucy with the top down, running her fingers through the other woman’s hair. She looked at her fondly, grabbing her hand and kissing her knuckles.

“Safe at last,” she said, running her thumb over the back of Lucy’s hand.

Lucy merely smirked and kept driving.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. Tough break Kara. 😬
> 
> So....this was my first public attempt at smut and hopefully it wasn't too bad lol
> 
> Let me know what you thought in the comments! I love each and every one of you who continue to read this! ❤


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything comes to a head with between Lucy and Kara. Kelly has a question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this early because between work and the election, it just isn't going to happen tomorrow lol
> 
> Anyone else have lockjaw from clenching their jaw and grinding their teeth out of anxiety over this shit???
> 
> Anyway here's the chapter, hope it ain't shit!!

**_Approximately seven years ago…_ **

_ Kara squeezed her eyes closed and shuddered as the ferris wheel cranked around the turn and came to a lurching stop at the top of the cycle. This was so stupid. Why had she thought this was a good idea? She was afraid of heights and the nerves that came with being up this high didn’t exactly help bolster her confidence for what she wanted to do next.  _

_ “Kara! Look at this view! It’s amazing!”  _

_ She inhaled deeply and tried to focus on the voice of the woman next to her. Lucy. This was finally it. She was finally going to ask her out. She could do this. She could totally do this. As long as, you know, when she opened her mouth to speak she didn’t puke or something. _

_ She opened her eyes and immediately felt woozy when she saw how high up they were. Her grip tightened on the safety bar so hard that her knuckles went white and her hands started to tingle. _

_ When she got no response, Lucy turned to the blonde. “Kara, it’s just a ferris wheel! It’s fine!” _

_ Kara huffed out a nervous laugh. “Ha, yeah, it’s uh--it’s not the wheel so much as it is me.” _

_ Lucy smiled and giggled. “What does that even mean?” _

_ She paused, taking in Lucy’s smiling face, her hand starting to cramp from gripping the bar so tightly. “I kinda, sorta bribed the guy at the controls to stop us at the top.” She laughed anxiously. _

_ “Well, for someone who’s afraid of heights, that seems like a pretty bad idea,” Lucy giggled. _

_ “I was going for romantic, but…”  _

_ Lucy looked up at her in surprise. _

_ She took a deep breath. “Okay, here goes: We’ve been friends for like a semester now, right? And it’s been really fun! And I was just thinking that maybe, you know, you and I--we could…I don’t know…” she trailed off, hope draining out of her. She couldn’t do this. She didn’t even know if Lucy liked her that way. This was stupid. _

_ She shook her head. “You know what? You’re right. What am I thinking? This is a bad idea! You’re happy being friends, and I’m happy being friends, and I just thought that--” _

_ “Kara,” Lucy cut in, a hint of a smirk on her lips, “there  _ is _ a problem.” _

_ Kara’s heart dropped and she knew the colour had drained from her face. _

_ “You talk  _ way _ too much,” Lucy finished, scooting closer and pulling her into a kiss, and suddenly the heights were the furthest thing from Kara’s mind… _

***

“Lucy Lane is with Leviathan and she has Kara?!” General Haley shouted through the monitor. 

Hank and Lena were in the base below the Wienerlicious, Lena working on locating Kara, and Hank informing the General of the new developments.

“How is this possible?” Haley continued, bringing the volume down and getting her fury under control.

“Well, Dr. Morrow’s list contained a codename that our computer translated to one Lucy Lane,” said Hank. “By the time we saw it, they were already gone.”

“Her cell is turned off and her watch was still in the apartment,” Lena added, typing frantically, her hair falling out of the messy bun she had thrown it up in. She hadn’t stopped working since they’d discovered Kara was missing, just sat in front of the computer screen all night. She knew she was a mess, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was finding Kara.

“Find her. I don’t care how,  _ just do it _ ,” Haley ordered gruffly, signing off.

Lena closed her eyes and breathed, trying to center herself.  _ What do you think I’m  _ **_trying_ ** _ to do,  _ she wanted to scream at the monitor, but she contained herself. Hank stepped over to join her.

“You know, it doesn’t even matter anyway. Leviathan’s probably working her over right now. She won’t last an hour.”

Lena spun around in her chair and glared at him. “No. You’re wrong. They don’t know she’s the Intersect, and they don’t know Lucy’s identity has been burned.”

Hank furrowed his brow thoughtfully and turned back to the monitor. “Well, if they're not torturing her, then what  _ are _ they doing to her?”

***

Kara fell back against the pillows and swiped at the hair on her neck, sticky with sweat. Lucy climbed up her body from under the sheets and pressed herself down into the blonde, dipping her tongue into her mouth.

Kara smiled into the kiss dreamily and slid her hand down to cup one of Lucy’s breasts, pinching her nipple gently and feeling it harden under her touch. She was just gearing up for another round (four? five? she wasn’t keeping track at this point) when Lucy’s phone began to buzz for the third time that morning, reminding her of her own phone that she had been neglecting all weekend. 

A wave of guilt washed over her, and she groaned as she thought about how angry Hank and Lena were going to be. “There’s gonna be  _ so much  _ yelling.”

Lucy settled onto her chest and smirked. “Was it worth it?”

“Was it worth it?” Kara purred, rolling over and pressing her body down into Lucy’s. She paused and feigned deep thought, as if she had to really think about whether or not it was worth it. Lucy giggled at her dorky demeanor. “It was  _ so  _ worth it,” said Kara finally, capturing her lips in another kiss.

Lucy smiled into the kiss, before pulling away. “Alright well, I’m gonna take a shower, because you made me make a  _ very _ big mess, and you can deal with the yelling while I’m in there, okay?”

Kara huffed.  _ “Fine.” _ She grinned and dropped another kiss to Lucy’s lips before letting her go. Lucy disappeared into the bathroom and Kara heard the water start running as she grabbed her phone off the nightstand, and powered it on. 

**_27 Missed Calls From Lena_ **

**_11 SMS Messages From Lena_ **

**_1 SMS Message From Winn_ **

Kara winced. “Oh that’s not good.” She shook her head and tossed her phone onto the bed, not quite ready to deal with her handlers’ rage yet.

A buzzing caught her attention and she realised it was Lucy’s phone vibrating. “Hey, Lucy?” She grabbed the phone and sat up, pulling the sheet up over her breasts. “Your phone’s buzzing.”

“What?” Came Lucy’s voice from the shower.

Kara glanced down at the screen so she could tell her who was texting, and she caught a glimpse of the message.

**_Have you heard from Uncle Tobias? -- Mom_ **

Kara felt her eyes start to roll back as she began to flash. “No, no, no--” The flash showed her a decryption key that decoded the text message to read:  **_Meet Leader -- Urgent._ **

Kara gasped as the flash ended, staring straight ahead, eyes wide. “This can’t be happening.” Was Lucy some kind of spy? Who was Leader? Why was she getting coded messages on her phone? 

“What was that, babe?” Lucy called from inside the bathroom.

Kara jumped, nearly falling out of bed in her haste to get dressed and out of the room. “Uh--noth--nothing!! Nothing at all! Actually I was just saying I’m a little--I’m a little...uh...parched because, wow, last night was--was incredible, you know? Like, we had some fun, didn’t we?” She continued to ramble as she pulled her clothes on, hoping Lucy wouldn’t notice the mountain of anxiety settling into her chest and invading her tone. “And then I was thinking, hey do you want some coffee?”

“Yeah, that’d be great!”

“Great! Okay, great!” She called manically, before running out the door, not even bothering to put her shoes on first. She strode quickly down the path toward the lobby, her feet slapping against the stone walkway. She paused to pull on one of her shoes as she passed the pool. She didn’t want to stop for long, so she kept walking with one shoe until she couldn’t take it anymore and stopped in front of a cabana to pull on the other. The curtain to the cabana opened and a pair of strong hands pulled her inside, throwing her onto the lounge chair inside.

“Ho!” She cried, falling back onto the cushion.

“Idiot!” Came a familiar, if furious, voice. “You sad sack, bleeding heart,  _ idiot! _ ”

Kara stared up to see Lena and Hank glaring at her, hands on their hips.

“She--she’s--”

“Kara,  _ never _ do that again!” Lena ordered, her tone filled with latent fury.

“It’s Lucy,” Kara started, “I think--”

“We know,” said Hank and Lena at the same time.

“What?” Kara stared at them in disbelief. “Okay but this--this has to be a mistake, right? Okay, I’ve known Lucy for eight years! Since college! And we had this really amazing night…” She trailed off when she saw the look on Lena’s face. “Look, she’s not a spy, and she has no Leviathan codename!”

Hank glared at her. “The codename--”

“Wait, no, don’t say it!”

“--is Red Tornado.”

Kara immediately began to flash. The Intersect running the decryption key in her mind again, decoding the codename to Lucy Lane. She saw Lucy’s Leviathan file and when it ended, she simply sat in shock.

“Kara…” Lena began.

“Oh my god,” said Kara quietly. “Lucy’s a spy.”

“I’m sorry, Kara.”

Kara just shook her head. “Okay, well let’s go. You guys gotta get me out of here.”

Lena shifted uncomfortably. “We can’t yet, Kara. You have to go back in there.”

Kara gaped at her. “What do you mean I have to go back in there?!”

“Think about it, Danvers,” said Hank. “We don’t want Lucy to know that we know she’s a spy, right?”

“Okay, okay, look,” said Kara, jumping out of her chair and gesturing wildly. “Lucy is with Leviathan. Leviathan is looking for the Intersect. And the Intersect just happens  _ to be ME! _ ”

“Kara,  _ they don’t know that, _ ” said Lena, gripping her arms tightly, trying to center her before she spun out too far. “Trust me, we’re right here. Everything will be fine, you will be safe.”

Kara said nothing, trying to think of how she was going to manage to play it straight. “Wait, how did you guys find me anyway?”

“As soon as you turned your phone back on, we had your location. General Haley lent us a chopper,” Lena explained.

Hank handed her a tray with two coffees on it. “Now buck up, soldier. Leviathan pulled one over on us. Let’s return the favour.” He opened the curtain to the cabana and held it open for her to exit.

The cups rattled together on the tray in Kara’s hands, evidence of her anxiety. 

“Steady…” Hank ordered. Kara squeezed her eyes closed and headed back to the room.

Standing outside the room, she took a deep breath, then another before opening the door.

Lucy was sitting on the bed in her robe, clicking through the messages on her phone. Kara took a deep breath and then sat down next to her on the bed, setting the tray down between them.

Lucy picked up one of the steaming mugs. “Aw, thank you sweetie!”

Kara merely hummed in response, but kept her eyes on her mug as she stirred in her cream and sugar, not trusting herself to meet Lucy’s gaze. She was sure her fear and anxiety was present in her eyes and she couldn’t risk tipping her off. When she could no longer avoid it, she lifted her mug and clinked it with Lucy’s, giving her a small, “You’re welcome,” and lifting it to her lips to keep them occupied.

Lucy smiled at her sweetly, but all Kara could see now was the predator behind the kind face. 

She was in trouble.

***

Kara sighed in relief as they entered the courtyard outside of her apartment. She was finally home, she’d made it through the long drive. She had had to blast the radio and sing at the top of her lungs to avoid having any conversations with Lucy, but she’d made it. Now Lucy was holding her sweaty palm and trying to make plans with her and she was running through a myriad of excuses in her head to get out of them.

“Kara, are you sure you’re alright?”

Kara pulled herself out of her thoughts. “Huh? Oh yeah! Everything’s great--fantastic! This is me on the brink of total happiness!”

Lucy smiled. “Okay, so…do you want to do something tonight?” 

Kara’s mouth went dry. “Oh, um. Yeah, I would  _ love  _ to, but the problem is--” She cast around for an excuse before she remembered seeing Alex’s jeep parked at the curb. “--the apartment isn’t safe! My sister is home and I can’t blow my cover so…”  _ Nice save, Kara!  _ she thought to herself, sure this would get her out of the night.

“Well, we could go out instead!”

Kara stared at her and internally screamed. Then she smiled and leaned in for a kiss. “Okay!” 

They said their goodbyes and as she waved Lucy off, she was overcome with a wave of nausea. How was she supposed to do this? 

A tapping pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked over to find Hank tapping on his window to get her attention, before motioning her over.

Kara sat down in the chair behind his desk and slumped down. Lena took a seat across from her and gave her a sad, sympathetic half-smile. “Are you okay?”

That was a question. One she wasn’t really sure she had the answer to. For a brief moment, she had been happy. She’d had something real. She was so close to being a real fucking person. She fixed Lena with a penetrating stare. “You know for a few days, I thought things were going to be different. I could have a life, I could have a girlfriend, I could be a regular human being. I thought Lucy was…”

“Different?” Lena offered softly.

“No,  _ normal, _ ” Kara snapped. She didn’t want  _ different _ . She wanted something normal and real. Someone she could be her whole self with, someone who knew everything about her and accepted it--her perfect partner at a game night. She thought that was going to be Lucy.

She sighed. “How could this happen?”

The monitor in front of her blinked on and General Haley’s face appeared on the screen. “Lucy must have been recruited when she was at NCU. Leviathan uses leadership seminars to look for possible agents.”

“Excuse me,” Kara interrupted, “I’m sorry, General, but who in my life  _ isn’t _ a spy? My sister? My best friend? Should I just start asking people that when I first meet them? ‘Hi, I’d like the extra-value meal, and while we’re on the topic, do you covertly work for a government espionage faction?’”

Haley frowned at her and dismissed her ramble, continuing in her briefing. “Your flash in Lucy’s room referenced an agent called ‘Leader’. We want you to use your relationship with her and see if she makes contact with him.”

Kara deflated in her seat. Lena looked over at her and saw the dejected look on her face. She jumped out of her chair and stood in front of the monitor. 

“General, Kara isn’t ready for this kind of mission. Kara’s too honest. She could barely handle a goodbye with Lucy--she’s going to see right through her.”

“This is our best opportunity to infiltrate Leviathan,” Haley replied gravely, “but if you don’t think she’s ready--”

“I’ll do it,” Kara cut in firmly.

Lena looked down at her, eyes wide with concern. Kara nodded to her.

“I’ll do it.” She turned back to the monitor. “Lucy betrayed me twice. It’s time to return the favour.”

***

The next day, Kara stood absentmindedly restocking printer cartridges and thinking about Lucy. Lucy, the one that got away. Lucy, the one who had dumped her and jumped into her best friend’s bed. Lucy, the rogue spy. All of these parts of the woman who had had her heart for the past five years, and yet Kara was having a hard time reconciling the Leviathan agent with the biology nerd who religiously snacked on gummy worms. She wondered if she would be able to hold onto her anger and betrayal in Lucy’s presence, or if seeing her bright smile and laughing eyes would crumble her resolve.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by her phone ringing. She looked down at the caller ID:  _ Lucy. _

She stared at it a moment as it continued to ring. Hank appeared at her side. “Answer it.”

“Not on the first ring,” she protested, “it implies an eagerness that I’m not really feeling right n--”

Hank twisted her ear and pressed the answer button on her phone, holding it up to her other untwisted ear. 

“Haaaa owww! Hi, Lucy!!” She turned and glared at Hank, rubbing her ear. “A d-date? Tonight? Yeah, sounds great. Where?”

Hank stared at her intently. She frowned at his wide-eyed gaze. “It’s a surprise?”

Hank rolled his eyes. Kara grimaced at the next question Lucy asked. She turned to stare pointedly at Hank in a panic. “Of course I can tell my bodyguards to take the night off so we can be alone, just the two of us!”

She gestured frantically at the phone. Hank remained impassive, merely motioned for her to pay attention to the call.

“I’m looking forward to it as well. Mmhmm. Okay, muah! Bye.”

As soon as she hung up, Hank reached up and twisted her ear again.

“OW! What was that for?!”

“That kissy noise! Have some self-respect, Danvers!”

She winced and rubbed her sore ear. “I need to go talk to Lena.”

She dashed out of the Nerd Herd and over to the restaurant, making her way down to the secret base below, where she found Lena sitting on the table, stacks of files encasing her in a paper fort.

Kara took in her furrowed brow and her slight frown as she read through a file. She’d been so wrapped up in Lucy and her excitement to have her back, that she’d pushed Lena and all of her cute little quirks to the back of her mind. (Except the day of the fruit punch incident. That had definitely stayed at the forefront of her mind for a while.) She watched as Lena’s tongue poked between her teeth slightly as she concentrated. 

She cleared her throat when she realised she’d been watching Lena for too long to not be considered creepy. Lena raised her head, her dark hair cascading over her shoulder as she turned to look for the source of the noise.

“Hey Kara, what’s up?”

“Lena, I need your help. How am I gonna survive tonight?”

Lena paused and set down the file she had been reading, folding her hands in her lap. “Well, a good spy knows what their mark wants. What do we know about Lucy?”

Kara stared at her blankly. All thoughts seemed to leave her head as the anxiety kicked in. What did Lucy want? The first thought that came to her head was ice cream and she wanted to drown herself for being so useless.

Lena seemed to take pity on her and smiled. “She’s a spy, Kara. She wants you to be under her spell.”

Kara nodded. “Okay, how do I do that?”

Lena tilted her head slightly and fixed her with a soft look. “She’s going to test you. When the time is right, she’s going to make certain that she has you, that you love her.”

Kara’s eyes widened and she felt her pulse quicken. “How’s she gonna do that?”

“When you’re most exposed,” Lena said matter-of-factly. 

Kara paled and her breath caught. During sex? Was she going to have to have sex with Lucy again? 

Lena seemed to sense her inner turmoil. “ _ Emotionally _ exposed,” she corrected, rising from her seat on the table. “Like, um, an intimate moment. Maybe a kiss.”

She slowly closed the few feet between her and Kara. “Imagine that I am Lucy. The moment is romantic, she’s close to you, she’s looking into your eyes.” She stared up into Kara’s ocean blue gaze. 

Kara tried to stare back but kept getting distracted by the bleeping computers and the bright fluorescent lights and the humming in her own brain that was telling her that she was going to get caught, that Lucy was going to kill her, that Lena was much,  _ much _ too close…

“Um, okay, okay, yeah I got that. I’m just trying not to be too distracted by the oh-so-romantic secret base.”

Lena reached over and grabbed a tablet off the table, shutting off the monitors and dimming the lights. She turned back to Kara and met her eyes again. “Concentrate. Keep looking into my eyes--don’t look up!--and if you can’t hold Lucy’s stare, look at her lips.”

Kara’s eyes dropped from Lena’s hypnotic multi-coloured gaze to her perfectly bowed lips, soft and pink. She couldn’t help but remember how they felt pressed against her own.

“Good,” Lena said, her own gaze dropping to Kara’s pink, slightly chapped lips. She watched the blonde’s tongue quickly flick out across them. “Now move her hair back over her ear,” she instructed, her voice dropping to little more than a whisper as the tension filled the space between them. 

Kara reached up and moved a dark lock of hair off of her cheek and pushed it gently back behind her ear, letting her fingers caress the soft, pale skin as she went.

“And when you start to kiss, focus again on her,” she watched Kara’s eyes jump back up from her lips to her own, “and just before your lips are about to meet…close your eyes.”

She watched as Kara tilted her head and let her eyes drop closed, her body pressing forward, their lips merely an inch apart. Lena let her own eyes fall closed as she breathed in Kara’s intoxicating scent, letting herself live in the fantasy for just a moment before she stepped backward, breaking the spell. 

“Good. Good, you’re all set.”

Kara’s eyes fluttered open and her brow furrowed in confusion. “Huh…” she murmured intelligently, searching Lena’s face for an answer.

Lena gave her a tightlipped smile and nodded once. 

“Oh! Yeah, good, that’s--that’s--”

“Hey, NSA just picked up a purchase on Lucy’s credit card,” said Hank as he came thundering down the stairs, unaware of the awkward and charged moment he was interrupting. “Guess it’s some stupid concert down at the music center. Better not be another freakin’ opera!”

He chuckled at his own joke and went to gear up. Lena turned to Kara and gave her a soothing smile. “Well, we’ll be there waiting for you. But just remember, Lucy is capable of anything.”

Kara nodded, her anxiety blooming in her chest again. Lena turned away and started clearing the files on the table. She waited until she heard Kara turn to leave before slowly turning her head to stare after her, replaying the moment in her mind and how it had felt to be that close to the blonde once more. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, committing Kara’s scent to memory. She gave a sad sigh and returned to her task.

***

Kara pulled on her jacket and stared at herself in the mirror. “You’ve got this,” she said to her reflection, straightening her collar. “You can do this. You can do this.” 

Grabbing her keys, she pulled open the front door and saw Lucy sitting on the edge of the fountain in the courtyard. Inhaling deeply, she locked the door and made her way over to the woman, leaning down to give her a quick kiss. “You look great, are you ready to go?”

Lucy smiled and took her arm, nodding as she led Kara to her car. 

They drove mostly in silence, Kara letting the radio fill the space, occasionally singing along with a song playing. She tried asking Lucy where they were going, but Lucy just gave her a secret smile and said it was a surprise. It wasn’t until they pulled onto the highway--in the opposite direction of the music center--that she began to get worried. She wanted to send Lena a message, alerting her and Hank to the change in plans, the music center tickets obviously being a decoy, but she knew it would be too obvious.

Fifteen minutes later they were walking through the gate of a carnival, Lucy beaming and Kara anxiously following her along. She double checked her wrist to make sure she was wearing the watch Lena gave her and sighed with relief when it was there. 

“So, what do you think of the surprise?” Lucy asked, practically jumping with joy. “Do you like it?”

“It’s great! I just--if I seem tense, it’s just my irrational fear of carnivals acting up on me.”

“Riiiight,” said Lucy slowly, shooting her a grin like she thought Kara was the funniest person ever. “Come here, I’ve got one more surprise for you.”

She led Kara over to the Ferris Wheel and told her to pick a bucket for them to sit in. Kara led her to a green one (the colour a striking resemblance to Lena’s eyes, Kara thought briefly, before shoving the thought away) and took a seat, Lucy joining her a moment later.

A few minutes later, the wheel cranked around and stopped, leaving their bucket swaying at the top of the ride.

Lucy smiled and laid her head on Kara’s shoulder. “You saw this coming didn’t you?”

Kara gripped the safety bar until her knuckles turned white and laughed nervously. “You bribed a carney.”

Lucy giggled, her voice dropping low and sultry as she nuzzled Kara’s neck with her nose. “You know what happens next?” She pulled back and rested her chin on Kara’s shoulder, her fingers playing with the small hairs on the nape of her neck. “You get really really nervous, and you ramble on for a couple seconds, and then…I get to kiss you.”

Kara’s spine straightened. This was it. This was the moment Lena was talking about. The test. Lucy was testing her to see if she still had her under her spell. She turned to meet Lucy’s gaze, shifting her body so that she was facing the brunette. As she stared into a pair of mint green eyes, she began to spiral out. She dropped her eyes to Lucy’s lips so that the other woman wouldn’t see the panic in them. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t kiss her. It was different in theory, when it was Lena pretending to be Lucy…

_ Lena. _ She pulled her gaze back up to Lucy’s eyes and imagined that one of them was cerulean and the other a more forest green. She lowered her eyes back to a pair of plump lips and pretended they were softer, pinker, more perfectly bowed. She reached up to tuck a brown strand of hair behind an ear and envisioned a darker lock, raven-coloured, contrasting like ink against the creamy skin beneath it. She tilted her head and thought of nothing but Lena, as she pressed her lips to Lucy’s, bringing a hand up to cup her jaw, deepening the kiss. 

A metallic clicking sound broke her out of her fantasy, and Lucy pulled back from the kiss. 

“I’m sorry, Kara.”

Kara looked down to where she had heard the clicking noise just in time to see and feel the silver barrel of a gun pressing into her ribs.

“Wh--Lucy, what are you doing?!”

“I work for a group called Leviathan. You know who they are, don’t you Kara?”

Kara said nothing, simply stared at the woman, her breaths coming quickly out of fear.

“They plan to eliminate you,” Lucy continued.

“Lucy, please! Don’t do this!”

“Believe me, Kara, I don’t want to. I’m not a killer. This isn’t what I do for a living.”

“If you pull that trigger, it  _ is _ what you do for a living!” Kara glared at her defiantly. “You already broke my heart, is it necessary for you to shoot it as well?!”

Lucy stared at her in silence, her eyes round and sad, tears creeping into the corners. “You’re right.”

She pulled the gun away slowly. “Okay, Kara here’s the truth. There’s a Leviathan operative down there, he’s watching us right now. I’m supposed to transport you to a car in the parking lot. If I don’t follow their plan, they’re going to eliminate me  _ and  _ you as a precaution.”

***

Lena checked the magazine in her pistol before sliding it back into place. Hank checked the navigation. “We’re almost to the music center. What’s the ETA on Kara and the Leviathan agent?”

Lena tapped on the display and linked it to Kara’s watch. She waited as the satellite data populated, and felt her stomach drop when the red dot popped up on the other side of the city.

“Oh no,” she said, “Hank, it was a decoy, turn us around now!”

Hank cursed and spun the SUV around, flicking on the lights and sirens and flooring it, heading out of downtown National City.

“Get on the north 101! Move!” Lena ordered, pulling out her phone to call Kara. No answer.

_ “Shit.” _

***

Lucy prodded Kara onward, weaving through the crowds of people, her gun pressed into her back. 

“Kara, you have to do exactly what I say, okay?”

Kara moved stiffly through the crowd, tensing as she felt the barrel dig into her kidney. “I think you should know that my completely rational fear of carnivals has now spread to ex-girlfriends.” She jerked away a little, turning her body toward Lucy. “I mean, how do I know I can trust you? How do I know not just gonna take me to the parking lot to do something you said you wouldn’t?”

Lucy didn’t answer. “Oh no. It’s him.”

“Who’s him? Him who?”

“Leader,” Lucy answered, the thread of fear in her voice making itself known to Kara. She followed Lucy’s gaze and her eyes landed on a balding man with wide shoulders and strong arms. Kara thought he looked vaguely like a mob enforcer.

“Okay, come on.” She pulled on Kara’s arm and led her through the throngs of excited carnival goers, trying to lead them away from Leader. They rounded a tent selling funnel cakes and nearly ran right into the man they were trying to avoid. Clearly, he had seen them and came to head them off. 

“Um, excuse us, person we don’t know,” said Kara anxiously, “you’re blocking us!”

He ignored Kara, turning his gaze to Lucy. “Her handlers are closing in. Eliminate her.” 

Lucy looked frantically between him and Kara. “What, here?”

“Don’t think, just shoot her in the head and let’s go.”

Kara snapped her head toward him in shock. “Did--did you just say--”

“Let’s talk about this first,” Lucy cut in, her voice rising. 

“Can we actually just leave--” Kara started, pulling away from Lucy. Leader grabbed her arm hard enough that she knew she’d have a bruise there and she gasped at the pain. He turned back to Lucy.

“This is a test, Lucy,” his voice dropped lower, “do it now.”

Lucy just stared at him, her eyes full of fear.

“Too late.” He reached inside of his coat for his own gun, but Lucy was faster, raising her gun to his chest.

He looked at her in surprise. “You’re making a  _ big _ mistake.”

Kara took advantage of the distraction and took off running, pushing through the crowds of people, vaulting over barriers and gates, with little regard to where she was going or what happened to the people that got in her way.

How much longer until Hank and Lena got there? And once they did, how long until they found her in the masses of people? She spotted a funhouse and ducked inside, tripping on the spinning tunnel and tumbling headfirst through the entrance. She pulled herself to her feet and found herself inside a hall of mirrors. She moved forward, arms straight out, as she tried to make her way through the mirror maze.

A voice found its way through the illusion. “Kara, you have to trust me.”

“Lucy?!”

She heard footsteps nearby. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Where are you? Why are you doing this? When did you join Leviathan and why?”

“It started at NCU. They sponsored a leadership seminar. After school, whatever job we wanted? They got us. Made our dreams come true.”

Kara ducked around another mirrored wall. “Couldn’t you get out?”

“When someone controls every part of your life, Kara, you have to do what they say. After a while, I found myself doing things I never thought I would have done. By then it was too late.”

“Too late for what?” There was no answer. “Lucy? Lucy?!”

She caught a glimpse of Leader in the mirror, but had no way of telling exactly where he was, only that he had a gun in his hand.

“Ms. Danvers, you need to come with me.”

Kara froze. “Um, no, you told Lucy to kill me so…”

He smirked. “I’d rather not leave your body here in this funhouse. What if a little kid saw it?”

“Wow, that’s…strangely considerate of you.” She stalled, looking for a way out. She opted to just go for it, running around corners, feeling her way along the glass. She rounded a corner and came face to face with the man she was trying to avoid.

He smirked and raised his gun. “Goodbye, Ms. Danvers.”

The glass next to him shattered and the bullet winged his arm. He fell to the ground. Kara looked up and saw Lucy, gun still raised. She darted over the broken glass and grabbed her hand, pulling her through the exit of the funhouse.

They’d barely made it a few steps away from the line when Lena appeared, gun pointed directly at Lucy’s head. “Don’t move!”

Hank tackled Lucy and began cuffing her.

“No wait, wait, wait! Don’t hurt her! She saved my life!” Kara stared down at Lucy’s terrified face, her eyes wide.

She watched as Lucy closed her eyes, a tear slipping down her cheek.

***

Hank secured Lucy into her chair while Lena finished attaching the leads to the polygraph machine. 

Kara stood by her side, whispering assurances to her. “Everything’s gonna be fine, okay?”

Lena set up the computer and then turned to Lucy, fixing her with a fierce glare, one eyebrow cocked menacingly. “Answer all of our questions with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.”

Lucy nodded meekly. “Okay.”

“Is your name Lucy Lane?”

“Yes.”

Lena glanced over at the screen.  _ Positive. _

“Did you attend National City University?”

“Yes.”

_ Positive. _

“Can I ask a follow-up question?” Kara asked quickly.

“You’re about to leave through that window,” Hank snarled.

“I rescind my follow-up question.”

Lena shot her an annoyed look and then turned back to Lucy. “Do you have a degree in molecular biology?”

“Yes.”

_ Positive. _

Lena’s demeanour shifted now that the control questions were out of the way.

“Are you a Leviathan agent?”

“No. Wait--” Lucy scrunched up her face. “Sorry. Telling the truth is new to me.” She inhaled deeply. “Yes. I am an agent of Leviathan.”

“Do you know the current whereabouts of your handler, codename Leader?”

Lucy sat silently for a moment. Lena glared at her, her tone becoming much harsher than Kara had ever heard it.  _ “Do you know the current whereabouts of your Leviathan handler--” _

“Yes,” Lucy said, exhaling, her eyes squeezed closed.

“Give us the location  _ now _ ,” Hank growled.

Lucy hesitated, glancing between Hank and Kara. Hank leaned closer to her. “Tell me now, or I lose my calm.”

“Lucy,” Kara began, “just tell him, please, just tell him.”

“Okay. I’m not supposed to know this, but Leviathan has a mobile medical unit. You’ll find Leader recovering in an office building on Cordova street in downtown National City.”

Lena raised her chin and gazed at her pointedly. “Is this a trap?”

“No.”

She glanced at the screen, eyebrow raised.

_ Positive. _

Hank unhooked Lucy from the polygraph machine, but left her shackled to the chair, while Kara followed Lena out to the armory where she was preparing for their raid.

“Lena, what about Lucy?”

Lena didn’t look up from her packing as she grabbed two rifles and shoved them into the duffel. “I know exactly what you’re thinking. That Lucy is the same person that you went to school with and the same person you dated, but we cannot be certain of that.”

She finished packing the duffel and hoisted it off the table, coming to stand in front of the blonde. “Trust me, Kara. You can’t trust her.” And with that, she walked away, tossing Henshaw his bag, the pair of them leaving her to go take down Leader.

Kara paced around the command center for a moment, debating on her next course of action. She desperately wanted to talk to Lucy, to get some answers, but Lena said that Lucy couldn’t be trusted. She huffed in frustration, digging her palms into her eyes before finally heading to where Lucy was being detained. 

“Kara?” 

“Hey.” She walked over to the keyboard and opened the door to her containment cell. Her hands fidgeted and squeezed each other as she took a deep breath. “I was just seeing if you needed, like, a water or something.”

“No, I’m good,” Lucy replied, wincing as she asked her next question. “Are Hank and Lena ready to start again?”

“Oh, uh, no. No, not just yet.” She lowered herself slowly into the chair opposite the prisoner, the one Lena had occupied earlier. “But…before they do, I was wondering if I could maybe ask you a few things?”

Lucy glanced at the polygraph machine. “Do you know how to work all this stuff?”

“Yeah, totally!” She pulled a thick book out from a drawer in the desk. “I, uh, I read the manual.”

“You read a lie-detector manual?” Lucy asked with a giggle.

“No! This is the manual to the entire base! Much more impressive.”

Lucy snickered. “You read a manual for the base?”

“Well, I mean…” she shrugged nonchalantly, trying to downplay her nerdhood. “I skimmed it.”

Lucy laughed and then an awkward silence fell between them. Kara swallowed, licking her chapped lips. “Would you--would you mind if I asked you a couple questions?”

“Go ahead.”

Kara slid her chair over to the computer and brought up the right program, then moved over to Lucy to connect the leads to her once again.

“Okay, um,” she took a deep breath, “back at NCU when we were dating, was that for real?”

“Yes.”

She glanced over at the monitor.

_ Positive. _

“You really liked me? Those were real emotions?”

“Yes.”

_ Positive. _

Kara huffed out a sigh that was about to turn into a sob. “Okay well then why did you sleep with James right after I got kicked out of school?!”

“Kara, it has to be a yes or no question or it won’t work.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “Did you love him too?”

“No,” Lucy replied softly, shaking her head.

_ Positive. _

“Great. That’s great, that makes it even worse.”

Lucy gave her a searching look. “Kara, there’s a question you’re not asking. It’s right there and you’re not asking it.”

Kara sat deep in thought for a moment, then-- “Did you sleep with James?”

“No,” Lucy said with a soft smile, her voice just above a whisper. “I didn’t.”

_ Positive. _

“So wait, you’re telling me that for the last six  _ years _ of my life, I’ve been believing that you betrayed me? Why would you do that?”

Lucy sighed. “When you got kicked out of school, my Leviathan advisor told me that I had to let you go. You weren’t talking to James, so that was the easiest way to do it.” Her eyes grew wide and wet. “I am so sorry, Kara.”

Kara stared at her incredulously. “I don’t believe this. Leviathan told you to dump me?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

Kara stared at her. If you asked her, there was  _ always  _ a choice, and in this case Lucy had made the wrong one. But she was clearly trying to make up for it now.

“I guess in your defense, when they told you to kill me you didn’t do it, so…I guess that means something.”

“It does,” she replied softly. “I never wanted to hurt you, Kara,  _ ever. _ You were my first love.”

Kara gave her a small smile. “Do you think that when this is all over we could try again?”

Lucy gave her a half smile. “Get me out of these,” she said, pulling on her cuffs.

Kara jumped out of her chair and undid her cuffs, leaving the polygraph leads attached. Lucy pulled her close and whispered, “Yes,” before pulling her into a bruising kiss.

Kara was so distracted by the heat of the moment that she didn’t hear the computer ping, nor did she see the verdict of the lie detector test.

_ Negative. _

Lucy pulled away from the kiss and smiled softly up to Kara. “I’m a little hungry. Think we could go upstairs and grab some food---maybe try to sort some of this out?”

Kara gave her a hopeful, lopsided smile and began detaching the polygraph leads from her body. Hope filled her chest, as she thought of what Lucy had told her. She’d been forced into this mess, doing these bad deeds because she’d felt she had no choice--like she was trapped. But that was over now. Lucy was safe now, could get away from Leviathan and lead the life she was meant to, with her. She led Lucy out to the main area, heading to the computer to unlock the base so they wouldn’t trip an alarm leaving. 

A clicking caught her ears and she turned around to find Lucy, stony-faced, gun in her hand, pointing it directly at her. 

“Lucy…wh--” she started, breathlessly, just as her phone began to ring. She pulled it out slowly, checking the caller ID:  _ Lena. _

“It’s--it’s Lena. I have to answer it or she’ll think something’s wrong,” she said quickly.

“Answer it,” Lucy replied, “but if you say one word about this, I’ll kill them both.”

Kara’s blood ran cold as she looked up into Lucy’s eyes, trying to find the soft humanity she had seen there earlier. But there was nothing, just cool determination. Was it all an act? Had she beaten the polygraph? Kara shuddered and answered the call.

_ “Hey Kara, we found Leader,” _ said Lena, the sounds of sirens and shuffling feet along with the shouts of agents could be heard in the background.  _ “We’re bringing him back to base.” _

“Great. See you when you get back,” said Kara, hanging up the phone. She turned her head slightly to look at Lucy and felt the cold barrel of Lucy’s gun press against her temple.

“I’m sorry, Kara,” she said, her voice icy. “Just do as I say, and I promise you, no one will be hurt.”

***

Kara sat at the main terminal with her elbows on the desk, hands clasped tightly in front of her as the doors to the base hissed open. Lena led the way down the stairs, Hank pushing Leader along behind her. 

“Kara?” Lena asked, her brow furrowed as she took in Kara’s rigid posture, her discomfort immediately obvious to the agent. “Kara, what’s wrong?”

“You promised that you wouldn’t hurt them,” Kara called out, not looking at Lena. She had been so stupid, and now she had put them all at risk. She couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in Lena’s eyes when she realised this. She had told her Lucy couldn't be trusted. Why hadn't she listened?

Lucy stepped around the corner, two guns raised and pointed at Hank and Lena. “Put the guns on the table, take the cuffs off.  _ Now. _ ”

Lena whipped around to look at Lucy, before slowly turning back to Kara.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” said Kara, her voice shaking and full of tears, her eyes squeezed closed. “It’s my fault. I let her out. I’m so, so sorry.”

Lena’s face remained intentionally blank, but Kara could feel the dismay radiating off of her in waves---or maybe that was just her own guilty conscience. She wasn’t sure at this point.

Lena handed her gun to Hank, who set it along with his on the table next to him before undoing Leader’s cuffs.

Leader pushed Hank back away from him and dove over to the table to grab both guns, pointing them at the two agents. 

“Now,” he said softly, “I believe we were headed to a holding area? Show me the way.”

As he backed them out of the room, Kara glanced up to Lena, trying to convey how sorry she was through her gaze, but she found no understanding or sympathy returned to her. Lena’s face was like stone and when she met Kara’s gaze, she knew the dismay she had felt was absolutely coming from the agent. The realisation made her eyes burn with tears and her hands began to shake.

Lucy stepped back into the room and laid her gun down before moving over to where Kara was seated. “Kara, just do what he says and it will all be okay.”

“What about my friends?”

Lucy was silent for a moment, as if contemplating whether or not she wanted to lie about the future well-being of the agents. “Just do what he says.” 

“How could you do this, Lucy?” 

“Kara, it’s...complicated,” she offered.

Kara narrowed her eyes, spinning around quickly in her chair. “ _ Complicated?!  _ Listen, I know  _ complicated _ , okay? It’s the word that best describes my life. What I’m asking is how could  _ you _ do this?”

Lucy’s mouth opened and closed a few times, as if trying to come up with a satisfactory answer where there wasn’t one. She finally met Kara’s eyes and seemed ready to answer when Leader entered the room, interrupting the pair.

“Excellent job, my dear! You were  _ perfect _ ,” he said, coming to stand next to the agent, placing a hand on the small of her back. Lucy immediately went rigid, her face regaining that stony look that betrayed nothing. She glared at Kara. 

“Show him the access screen for the joint intelligence database,” she ordered.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to do that,” said Kara smugly.

“Do it now, or I’ll kill your friends," said Leader coolly. "Starting with the woman.”

Kara stared at him in horror before glaring and turning back to the computer and opening the requested access screen.

“Thank you, Kara,” he said with a patronising smile, staring up at the screen.

Kara spun back around in her chair, anger boiling in her blood. “This was all a trick, wasn’t it? I mean, you guys did all of this just to get in here and access our computer.” Kara paled as a realisation hit her. “Oh my g--you let her  _ shoot you _ !”

Leader smirked, “Devious, aren’t we?” He reached out and grabbed Kara by the front of her shirt, tossing her over to Lucy. “Move her.” He settled down in front of the computer to go to work.

Lucy led her down the hall toward the holding cells, gun pressed into her back. 

“Lucy, you’re making a big mistake,” she pleaded.

“Just do what he says,” replied Lucy.

“Why?” Kara asked, turning to look at her as they approached the desk where the polygraph machine was set up. “What is your boss searching for? What secret is worth  _ this? _ ” Kara backed up to the desk and grabbed the base manual and a pair of handcuffs that were sitting next to it, holding them behind her back, as Lucy pushed her into a cell, none the wiser.

“He’s searching for someone...James Olsen.”

“James?” Kara whispered incredulously. “Why are you looking for James?”

“Kara, don’t try and protect him, we know he’s CIA.” She backed out of the cell and locked the door with the panel outside. “He stole something from us.” She turned and walked away without another word or backward glance.

Kara stared across the hall to the opposite cell, where Hank and Lena were being housed. They had heard everything.

“They’re looking for the Intersect,” Hank growled, but Kara wasn’t listening. She only had eyes for Lena, who was staring at the ground with a worried frown on her disappointed features.

“I’m sorry, Lena. I should have listened to you.” She pulled the manual from behind her back and began flipping through it.

“We’ll figure something out,” Lena replied softly, no heat behind her words, just despondency.

“Actually,” Kara responded, finding the right page. “I have a plan.”

She raced over to the panel on the wall in her cell and began tapping away, opening a hidden menu giving her access to all the base’s functions.

“Hey! That’s the base manual! I told you that was top secret!” Hank shout whispered.

“Yeah I know,” replied Kara, a determined look in her eye. “But so am I, and it needs to stay that way.”

A minute later the lights clicked off and all functions powered down. Kara laid down on the cot in her cell and stuck the manual under her head as a pillow. Soon, Leader and Lucy arrived outside of her cell. 

“What did you do?”

“Like I told Lucy,” she replied flatly, “I read the manual."

“ _ What  _ did you do?” He asked again, voice rising in anger.

“Well, first and foremost, I locked you out of the computer system using the remote console that every room in the base is equipped with.” She grabbed the book from behind her head and stood up, walking to the door. “It’s in the manual,” she said smugly. “Unfortunately, said manual is in here with me, and since I overrode the primary controls, we’re now safely locked within these bulletproof cells.” She stopped just in front of Leader, smiling wolfishly. “ _ Devious _ , aren’t I?”

Leader smirked. “I make one call and my men will be here in 20 minutes.”

Kara clapped her hands and pointed at the man. “I’m so glad you brought that up! You see, I also activated the base’s communications jammer, so no calls out---sorry about that,” she added in faux contrition. “And because I triggered the CIA’s trouble alarm, I think the cavalry’s gonna be here in…I don’t know...ten minutes or so?”

She smirked, leaning against the glass. “The nerd in me  _ really _ wants to say ‘checkmate’ right about now.”

Leader just smiled softly. “Never say that.”

Kara’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

“Because you don’t know who you’re playing against,” he replied, walking across the hall to Hank and Lena’s cell, fiddling with something in his hand before affixing it to the door to their cell. Kara recognised it as a small but powerful explosive charge. Hank and Lena began to back away, their eyes wide with terror.

“These cells might be bulletproof, but they can’t withstand  _ that _ ,” he continued, setting the timer for two minutes and starting the countdown, “the blast will kill them.” He turned back to Kara and smirked, an air of smugness around him. “But I’ll bet your cell will be just fine.”

Kara stared at him in horror. He was going to kill Lena and Hank right in front of her. 

“Kara! Don’t do  _ anything _ !” Lena shouted.

“You stay in that cell, Danvers! That’s an order!” Hank called.

Kara turned to Lucy. “Lucy…”

“Just do what he says, Kara,” she replied robotically, though Kara thought she detected regretful fear in her eyes.

“Open the door, Ms. Danvers,” Leader commanded.

Kara gaped at him, before turning to Hank and Lena who were both shaking their heads, telling her not to listen to him, to Lucy, who was refusing to meet her eyes, back to Leader.

“Goodbye, Ms. Danvers,” he said, turning to leave.

“No, no, no! Wait! Wait!” Kara shouted, moving over to the panel on the wall, thinking quickly. A lightbulb clicked in her head and she began typing as fast as she could. Finally, her cell door clicked and hissed open. Leader trained his gun on her and motioned for her to come to him. “Now, show me the way out of here.”

***

Lena watched in horror as Leader led Kara away, gun pointed at her head. Lucy approached the glass and deactivated the explosive, detaching it from the door.

“Lucy, if you hurt her, I swear to God I will hunt you down and rip you limb from limb,” Lena snarled through the glass.

Lucy gave her a look of skeptical condescension and walked away, leaving Lena to slam her hand into the door.

A minute later a beep sounded and a message popped up on the control panel. Lena darted over to it. “It’s a message from Kara!”

**_I also unlocked your door. Taking them to Nerd Herd._ **

**_Unleash the Henshaw!_ **

A second later the door to their cell clicked open, parting with a hiss. Lena slammed it open the rest of the way and sprinted down the hall toward the exit, only stopping to grab a gun along the way. She was going to personally see to it that Lucy Lane never set foot outside of a prison cell again.

***

Kara lifted the hatch hidden beneath the tile in the home theater room, checking to make sure the coast was clear. It was the middle of the night, but Nia, Brainy, Winn, and Kara on occasion had been known to sneak back into the store at night to make use of the home theater room’s 65” television, or to use the breakroom for poker night. 

Seeing and hearing no one, she pushed the hatch open and jumped out, followed by Leader and Lucy, both keeping their guns trained on her as they walked out into the center of the store. 

“So what happens now?” She asked, keeping her hands raised, hoping to stall for time until the cavalry arrived.

“Now? Well, we don’t really need you anymore now, do we?” Leader replied, stepping toward her.

“Wait, what?” Lucy stepped forward, her features twisted in concern. “There’s no need to kill her, she did what you asked!”

Leader opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by a loud,  _ “Freeze!” _

Kara turned to see Lena step into the store, gun raised. She barely had time to celebrate before Leader was knocked off his feet in a full on football tackle by Henshaw. He bowled the other man over, the pair crashing into an Assassin’s Creed video game display.

Lucy’s eyes went wide as she turned and fled toward the back of the store. “Lucy, stop!” Lena shouted as she began to give chase.

“No, don’t hurt her!” Kara shouted, knowing the two agents clashing could not end well. Lena turned for just a moment to shoot her a pained  _ are you kidding me? _ look, before sprinting after the rogue agent. 

Kara spared a glance over at the two men duking it out to her right. Hank was clearly winning, since Leader’s arm was wounded, so she took off after the two women, jumping over the toppled display. As she snuck around the corner in the backroom, she saw Lucy peer around a corner and then raise her gun. 

“Hey, Lucy, wait,” she whispered, coming to stand right behind her. She sneaked a glance around the corner and saw Lena clearing the area. Lucy had been ready to shoot her. Turning back to Lucy, she placed her hands on the woman’s shoulders. “I can help you! Come with me. I can get you out of here.”

Lucy said nothing, keeping her gun trained on Lena. 

“ _ Please,  _ Lucy,” Kara pleaded, the panic rising in her voice. 

Lucy hesitated, then lowered her gun. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Kara grabbed her hand and pulled her back the way they came, down another hallway that led to the loading docks. Throwing open the door to the loading bay, she raced down the ramp and out to her Nerd Herder that was parked nearby, unlocking it. 

“Here, take the Herder, get as far away from here and as far away from Leviathan as you can. I won’t call it in.” She pulled open the door and held it for Lucy to enter, closing it behind her. Lucy rolled down the window, grabbing her hand where it sat on the ledge of the door.

“Come with me, Kara. We can finally be together, just you and me. No more spies...no more lying---no more secrets!” Gripping Kara’s hand, she pulled it to her mouth and pressed a kiss to her palm, her eyes wide and earnest. “Please Kara, I know I hurt you, but I promise things can be different. I love you, and away from Leviathan and away from the CIA, we can finally have something real!”

Kara gazed down at her. This was everything she had ever wanted, for Lucy to love her, to want to be with her for real. But that was before. So many things had changed for her, and she knew for certain where her heart lay now.

“That sounds amazing,” she says, grabbing Lucy’s hand with one of her own, “there’s just one problem…” 

“What?” Lucy asked, puzzled.

Kara grabbed the handcuffs she’d taken from the base and quickly snapped one end to Lucy’s wrist, the other onto the steering wheel of the Herder.

“Kara!” Lucy shouted indignantly, pulling on the chain. “What are you--- _ please  _ don’t do this!!”

Kara stood up straight and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring down at the woman she used to love. “You should know I really wanted to help you, Lucy. I was going to let you go. I was even tempted to leave with you. But when you were about to kill Lena…you made the decision for me.”

Lucy rattled the handcuffs as she tried to pull the steering wheel off or slip her hand out. She turned to Kara, pleading with her not to do this, apologising profusely, tears streaming down her face.

“You’re under arrest, Lucy,” Kara continued, anger coursing through her, “and I’m breaking up with you.”

With that, she turned to go find Lena and give her the news.

  
  


***

A few nights later, Alex and Kelly had invited them to dinner, so Kara and Lena were walking through the courtyard. It was the first time they had had time to speak alone in days, and Kara took the opportunity to apologise profusely for her stupidity when it came to Lucy.

“I’m just really sorry. I should have listened to you from the beginning. You were right, I wasn’t ready for this mission.”

Lena huffed out a small laugh. “Kara,  _ no one  _ is ready for this type of mission. Your girlfriend being a Leviathan agent isn’t something they teach you in spy school.”

Kara gave a slow shrug, screwing her mouth up in a sad frown. “I’m just too trusting. Alex says it all the time. Ever since I was a kid I just always really wanted to believe what everyone told me, you know?” She sighed, stopping just outside the door. “I’m just having a hard time getting used to this new job, all the spying and lying…”

Lena shook her head, brow furrowed. “Don’t get used to it, Kara. What makes you special is that you’re not like every other spy. You’re a good person and you want to help people. Leave the deception to me,” she said with a wink and a smile.

“Well, I’m glad I have you,” Kara replied with a soft smile, reaching down to interlock their fingers.

Lena stared down at their joined hands, warmth filling her body at the contact. “Yeah,” she said softly, a smile creeping over her face, “we’re better as a team.”

Kara pushed the door open to the apartment to be greeted by shouts of delight from Kelly, Alex, and Winn. Alex swept Lena up in a tight hug, before pointing her toward the table, where Kelly was excitedly bouncing, not having seen her in a while.

Alex stepped closer to her sister, lowering her voice. “So, Lena’s back?”

Kara furrowed her brow. “Back?”

Alex winced. “Winn may have spilled the beans on you and Lucy. I got a little worried, to be honest.”

Kara took a deep breath. “No, it’s--everything’s fine now. She wanted to see if we could work it out. Maybe give it a second try.”

“And?” Alex prompted, face full of concern.

“And I realised that Lucy, NCU, and James? That’s all stuff from my past, and it should stay that way.”

She gave her sister a tightlipped smile that Alex returned. Then she took a deep breath and smiled brightly, shoving away the bad feelings about Lucy. “But my new story is Lena and you and Kelly and…Winn? For some reason?” 

Alex laughed. “He came over looking for you and nearly had a heart attack when he smelled the pot roast, so Kelly had no choice but to invite him to stay. You know how she is about strays.”

Kara smiled, walking over to Lena, where she sat at the table, placing a hand on her shoulder softly before sitting down next to her. Lena smiled warmly at her and offered her her hand on the table, and Kara was overcome with how familiar this all felt. 

Maybe closing the door with Lucy could open the door to something new. She squeezed Lena’s hand and was rewarded with another bright smile from the agent.

Her stomach flipped and she could feel herself flushing. A familiar feeling, indeed.

As they finished dinner, Kelly stood up, tapping her wine glass. "Thank you guys for coming over for dinner. You guys mean so much to Alex and I. You're our family and we love you very much."

She paused and turned to Alex. "Which is why I can think of no better time to do this, than when surrounded by all the people we love."

She dropped down to one knee in front of her girlfriend and pulled a small box out of her pocket, popping it open to reveal a modest diamond. 

"Alex Danvers, you’re the love of my life, my favourite person…and you have the most talented tongue of any woman I've ever met."

(Kara choked on her wine. Lena patted her back with a soft chuckle.)

"Will you marry me?"

Alex's mouth opened and closed for a moment before she dropped out of her chair and pulled Kelly in for a bruising kiss. "Yes, of course I will. I just can't believe you beat me to it." 

Kara, Lena, and Winn cheered. Kelly went to retrieve a bottle of champagne that she had bought for the occasion and they spent the rest of the night cheering and congratulating the couple. 

As the night finally wound down, Kara walked Lena to the door but was accosted by Kelly, who pulled Lena into a hard hug. The two women had become fast friends and it made Kara warm inside to see Lena integrate so easily with her family. 

Kelly pulled away and smiled, thanking Lena as the agent offered a final congratulations.

Kelly preened, looking over at Alex, who was trying to beat Winn in Mortal Kombat **.** She turned back to the pair, giving them a mischievous smirk.

"Who knows? Maybe you guys will be next!"

Kara's ears went pink.

***

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know a lot of you were hoping for Luthor/Lane WWE Smackdown, and to be honest I did write one, but it felt too much like bordering on police brutality and I just didn't feel comfortable putting it out there. I was worried it would sour you guys on Lena. 
> 
> I also felt it was incredibly important that Kara be the one to repudiate Lucy, to show growth. I hope yall are okay with that.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Lena face their most challenging undercover mission yet...posing as a happily married couple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yall, sorry for the hiatus last week, but with the election, my job, and just good ol' poor mental health, I just didn't have it in me to finish this chapter. But hopefully we're back on track now lol
> 
> As always, hope it ain't garbage. Any mistakes are the fault of Perry the Platypus.

Hank sat on his couch and poured himself a healthy glass of scotch, turning on a military documentary. It had been two months since the whole Lucy fiasco, with no real threats since, and he had gotten comfortable in the monotony. Kara was with Lena tonight, so there was no need for surveillance. He grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoveled it into his mouth, pressing play.

_ “The night of August 12, 1965 the second battalion of Marines endeavored to make a daring helicopter assault on the Elephant Valley, just--” _

The documentary blinked off and was replaced by a video conference with General Haley. Hank quickly hid his bowl of popcorn and glass of scotch under the table.

“Hope I’m not interrupting,” Haley snarked, noticing his unease.

“What can I do for you, General?”

“NCPD just picked up one of ours. The agent’s name is Susan Vasquez. She’s been missing for over a year, although she was presumed to be on a covert domestic assignment. Unfortunately, we have no record of this assignment, and so far the subject has been…uncooperative.”

“Cat’s got her tongue, huh?” Hank smirked. “You want me to take a crack at her?”

Haley didn’t answer, but shared her screen with Hank, showing surveillance video of what appeared to be Vasquez’s hospital room. The agent was strapped to the bed, eyes rolling back in her head as she yanked on the restraints and her body arched off the bed. She looked absolutely insane.

“As you can see, her mental state is fragile already. The subject’s last confirmed location comes from a phone call traced to this subdivision in the National City suburbs.” 

A map of the area appeared on the screen and Hank studied it carefully, before it blinked away and was replaced by Vasquez’s video again.

“Vasquez was living in the ‘burbs? Heh, no wonder she went nuts, right?” He snickered. 

Haley ignored his joke. “We took the liberty of purchasing a home there to serve as a base of operations.”

Hank peered at the screen, watching Vasquez. “Can you zoom in on her?”

Haley obliged and in their silence, they heard Vasquez mumble a single word over and over again.

Hank screwed up his face, trying to discern what the word was. “What’s that she keeps saying?” 

“Obsidian,” replied Haley, shaking her head. “Possible codename for her enemy contact? That’s our best guess. She chose this location due to its proximity to a sleeper cell. I need someone to resume Susan’s assignment, identify her contact, and infiltrate their terrorist network.”

Hank sucked his teeth. “I don’t know how well I’d fit in with those people, General. With all due respect, I think it would be obvious I don’t belong.”

“Not you, Major Henshaw. We need a  _ normal _ couple.”

***

Kara glanced over at Lena, curled up on her end of the couch. The distance between them felt like an ocean. In the months that had passed, things had mostly gone back to normal, or as normal as things got for them. It had been almost too easy to slip back into her fake relationship with Lena, but then Lena had always been easy to like. 

On the agent’s end, however, Kara couldn’t help but feel some distance. It wasn’t as bad as before they had declared feelings for one another, but Lena seemed to have some reservations. She cuddled Kara on the couch during double-date night with Alex and Kelly, and she didn’t pull away the second they left the room anymore, but she was stiff in Kara’s arms, as if she had to remind herself that she wasn’t allowed to relax around her anymore. 

Kara felt it like a sucker punch to the gut. It occurred to her that perhaps Lena was holding back, not just because of their asset/handler relationship, but because of how she had just run off with Lucy. Lena seemed like the type to wall herself off in the interest of self-preservation, and if Kara had hurt her, perhaps this new stiffness was the manifestation of those walls. 

That was something that Kara found herself repeatedly kicking herself over. How she had gone so head over heels with Lucy, so wrapped up in the past and what could have been. And when things got hairy, she had trusted Lucy implicitly, even against Lena’s guidance, when all the agent had ever done was care for her and keep her safe. She knew better now. She would never again doubt Lena’s instincts. She had been so wrapped up in trying to have something 'normal' that she had thrown away something good and real with Lena at the drop of a hat. Now, after this extended dry spell of no missions and with plenty of time to think on her actions, Kara was pretty sure that normal wasn't quite what she wanted anymore. And she hoped she could win back Lena’s affection.

Lena’s phone buzzed, pulling Kara out of her thoughts. 

“That Hank?” She asked curiously.

“Looks like we’ve got a mission,” Lena replied with a smile. 

“Oh thank God,” she responded, elated. Truth be told, she had kind of been getting bored without any missions. After the adrenaline pumping year she’d spent with Hank and Lena, this hiatus had felt like a sort of strange prison.

They leapt off the couch and headed into the courtyard to meet Hank.

“Afraid you two are going to have to drop your dating cover for this particular assignment,” he said with a smirk.

“No problem,” said Lena.

“What is it?” Kara asked excitedly. “Thai street racing gang? Ukranian prostitution ring?”

“No,” Hank replied, “for this mission, you and Agent Luthor…are going to be married _. _ ” He pulled two rings out of his pocket and handed them to the pair.

“You two kids are going to the  _ suburbs _ ,” he sneered. “Good luck as a normal couple.”

***

Kara sifted through her closet, searching for clothes that said ‘married and professional’ and found her closet severely lacking. As she threw aside a shirt that said ‘More Cowbell!’ and pushed aside another designating her as a ‘ **F** emale  **B** ody  **I** nspector’ that Lena had bought her as a joke, she finally found some of Jeremiah’s old buttonups that she had taken from his closet and had tailored.

She pulled one out of the back of the closet, muttering “maybe” as Alex walked in. 

“Breaking out a dad shirt, huh?”

“Yeah, uh, what do you think?” She held the shirt up to her chest.

“Well, I think it makes you look very grown up.”

“Oh good! That’s kind of the idea,” she said in relief.

“Yeah? Where are you guys going?”

“Uh, Lena and I are just house sitting. Her boss at the Wienerlicious is out of town and--”

“Oh my gosh! Kara this is great!” Alex practically jumped up and down with excitement.

Kara stared at her in puzzlement. “Spending a week in the suburbs? Yeah…dream come true?”

“No no, don’t you get it?! This is like a dry run, you know? So you and Lena can see what it would really be like if you--”

“No! Zip it,” Kara cut her off. “That is  _ your _ wedding craziness right there, so…keep that, that’s yours.  _ We’re  _ just house sitting, okay? It’s no big deal.”

Alex scrunched her eyes closed, and Kara could tell she wanted to say more. She rolled her eyes in affection toward her sister. Alex only ever wanted good things for her, she just didn’t want to wind up disappointing her.

“Okay,” said Alex finally, “can we call it…cohabitating with your longterm girlfriend in a house that doesn’t have posters that were hung in the eighth grade?” She turned and opened her hands toward Kara’s Tron poster, as if she were presenting it.

“Hey now!” Kara was quick to defend the poster. “That--that is actually a collectible!” 

She quivered under the stern look Alex was sending her way.

“...but yeah, yeah we can call it that,” she finished meekly.

“Then that is a big step forward!” Alex smiled brightly and clapped her hands, walking out of her room. “Have fun!”

Kara sighed as she continued packing her bag. She really hoped Alex didn’t get her hopes up too much about this.

***

The sun shone brightly on the street as Kara turned onto the cul-de-sac that would be her temporary home.  _ Argo Heights _ , the sign said as she drove by. It was jarring. All of the houses were identical, complete with green lawns, trimmed hedges, and mailboxes with the names of the residents painted on them. Kara turned into the driveway with the mailbox marked ‘Dawson’ and cut the engine to the CIA-provided Volvo. 

As she stepped out into the bright Californian sun, she felt as if she’d stepped into the Stepford Wives. All around the cul-de-sac neighbours waved to her as they watered their lawns, walked their dogs, and pruned their rose bushes. Bright smiles were cast her way as she turned back to take in the stucco walls and terra cotta roof tiles that matched the rest of the neighbourhood. It was an immodest two story Mediterranean style house, boasting of a certain financial status that Kara absolutely did not possess.

She stepped in through the front door and found herself in the pages of a Better Homes & Garden magazine, the decor and style carefully selected. She glanced around the room and the first thing she noticed was a large well-edited wedding photo of herself and Lena. The only reason she knew it was edited was because she and Lena were not married. This was not real. But it looked so incredibly realistic. She took in the slew of pictures on the table below it, the two of them hiking, bundled up in winter, Kara carrying her bridal style---each one carefully photoshopped so realistically that Kara herself wondered if she had blacked out during a photoshoot somehow.

A light clicking caught her attention and she looked up to see a large German shepherd bounding toward her. She stared blankly. The CIA had really invested in the whole nuclear American family. She wondered briefly if she was going to find out the CIA had supplied 2.5 children for this mission.

She patted the dogs head and then headed to the kitchen, where she heard some commotion. She found Lena garnishing a buffet size bowl of what appeared to be potato salad.

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” she joked, trying to get over her shock.

“Thanks, I had some help,” said Lena setting the potato salad down on the island.

“Okay, but...whose life have I stepped into? I mean, like for instance, what are you doing?”

Lena frowned. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m making potato salad.”

Kara chuckled and pointed at the oversized dish. “Well are you cooking for the entire neighbourhood?”

Lena turned and grabbed a platter of burger patties and hotdogs from the fridge. “No Kara, you are.”

She turned and led Kara to the kitchen door leading out to the back patio. Kara gaped at the crowd of people milling around the backyard drinking beers. All of the women seemed to be wearing different variations of the same sun dress, and all the men were wearing polos and slacks.  _ Stepford Wives for sure _ , Kara thought.

“Hey! There’s the grill meister!” A bulky oafish looking man smiled at her, a big toothy grin. A woman who appeared to be his wife joined his side and waved enthusiastically. “Welcome neighbours!!”

Kara gave a stunned wave before turning back to Lena.

“Don’t forget,” Lena reminded her softly, “one of our neighbours is a suspected terrorist.”

Kara’s hand dropped immediately, the reality of the situation crashing immediately. A noise from the living room made her jump and she turned to find Henshaw, posing as a cable man, fiddling with the cables to their CIA-supplied 65” flatscreen tv. 

“You heard the little lady,” he grunted, “get out there and mingle!”

Kara looked back and forth between him, Lena, and the crowd of suburbanites milling around outside, her jaw slack at the new information being thrust at her. Then she picked up the platter of meat and followed Lena out into the fray.

She made her way over to the grill, trying to look like she was comfortable in this environment. 

She could grill. She could make burgers for her eerily peppy neighbours. As she began loading patties and weiners onto the grates, the oafish man from earlier approached her with a goofy grin on his face.

“Well well! Welcome to the neighbourhood!” He stretched out a hand which Kara shook, giving him a nervous smile. “How ya doin’?”

“Oh, I’m--I’m good,” Kara replied, wiping her brow. “I’m Kara.”

“Otis. I live next door.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Listen, I want you to know, we’re all very accepting of your lifestyle. People like you are very welcome in this neighbourhood!”

_ People like you? _ Kara frowned.

“In fact, we have our own little Pride celebration every year!” 

Kara did her best to smile. This was all starting to feel very  _ Get Out _ garden party-esque to her. Otis clapped her on the back and continued.

“How’s about I introduce you to some of the natives, huh?”

He wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her away from the grill. Kara stiffened under his embrace for a moment before relaxing. She needed to blend in and be one of the gang if she had any hope of finding out who the terrorist was, so she let Otis drag her over to a group of guys standing in a circle drinking beer.

“Guys this is Kara,” he introduced her to the group and then went around the circle, putting names to faces with funny little quips and anecdotes about each person (“This is Dennis. Whatever you do, do NOT let him drive your golf cart!”) each followed by raucous laughter from the group. Kara did her best to laugh along.

“Hold on a minute,” said Otis, staring off over Kara’s shoulder. “Who is that talking to my wife?”

Kara turned around and followed his gaze until she found Otis’ wife, a thin blonde, talking to Lena. She couldn’t help but smile softly. The afternoon sun was beaming down on the agent and it made her dark tresses glow almost red. She couldn’t help but notice the tinge of pink on her nose and cheeks where she was starting to get a little sun. It made her heart feel fuzzy.

“Oh that’s--that’s my wife. That’s Lena.” Kara couldn’t help but be enraptured by how good that sentence felt. She stared over at the agent, who was listening to whatever Otis’ wife was saying, smiling brightly. She turned for just a moment to look for Kara and met her eyes with a sweet smile. Kara smiled back and gave a small wave. She wondered for a moment, what it would really be like to be married to Lena. Whether Lena would want to settle down in some little cul-de-sac like this, or would she prefer to continue her life of espionage and intrigue.

Kara shook herself. It hardly mattered. They weren’t married, and after everything with Lucy, she wasn’t even sure Lena was even still interested in her. She was pulled from her thoughts by Otis speaking again.

“Wow...well done, Kara!” He clapped her on the back again. “...Wanna trade sometime?”

The smile immediately dropped from Kara’s face as she whirled around to face him. He immediately broke out into raucous laughter, joined by the rest of the guys. “I’m kidding! You should have seen your face! No way the PTA would stand for that, am I right?”

Kara joined in on the laughter, albeit fakely, before excusing herself to tend to the grill again. She watched the group of guys move over to the women and heard Otis begin to tell a lame and possibly racially insensitive joke. 

Cracking a beer, she rolled her eyes at the robotic laughter of the crowd. 

“My sentiments exactly,” came a voice from her left. She turned and saw a gorgeous woman approaching her, martini in hand, each movement seductive and sensual. Everything about this woman spoke of sexuality. She smirked at Kara mischievously. 

“Can I let you in on a little secret about your neighbours Ms…?”

“Dawson. Kara Dawson,” she replied.

“They bore me,” the woman drawled, leaning in close to her. 

Kara chuckled nervously and looked back at the party. “Yeah it’s uh...it’s not really my scene either.”

The woman looked Kara up and down before extending her hand to shake. “Mercy Graves. I live just down the street. Perhaps the two of us can...get together sometime. Maybe engage in something a little more...stimulating?”

She stepped closer to Kara, leaning in close on the last word, her eyes hooded and dark. Kara stepped back quickly and lost her grip on her beer bottle, sending it crashing onto the stone patio. “I--uh--sorry. That’s--that’s very kind of you to offer and it sounds like a lot of fun, but I am very, very married.” She spoke quickly, holding up her left hand and pointing to her ring as if to drive the point home.

Mercy laughed brightly. “Congratulations, Mrs. Dawson, but who isn’t? My husband is right over there.”

She nodded toward a tall, well-muscled man with a square jaw. “Well, he’s a big fella isn’t he,” Kara replied, going pale. “What line of work is he in? Lumberjack?”

“The kind that keeps him out of town,” Mercy replied suggestively, sucking the gin off of an olive, before taking it into her mouth.

Kara stared at the movement, unsure if perhaps this was some kind of strange fever dream, or a scene out of a bad porno.

“Kara!”

She snapped her head up to see Lena waving her over brightly.

Mercy leaned in again. “Is that your wife? She seems very... _ pretty _ .” She spoke the last word as if it were an insult. 

Kara shifted nervously. “Well, gotta run. You know how it is, the ol’ ball and chain.” She chuckled.

Mercy smirked. “Listen Kara, I just live right up the road, so call me when the honeymoon’s over.” She leaned up to whisper in the blonde’s ear. “ _ I’ve got a chain too.” _

Kara laughed nervously and loudly at that. “Oh hahaha! I bet you do!” She turned to walk away and felt a firm hand slap her ass. But when she turned back in shock, Mercy was gone.

She made her way over to Lena quickly, following her around the side of the house, away from their guests.

“Anything,” asked Lena.

“Nope. No flashes, no nothing. I think our neighbours are clean.” She paused, frowning. “Except for that lady from down the street, Mercy. She’s got a dirty mouth.”

“Well are you sure you checked everyone?”

“Maybe we got the wrong neighbourhood?”

Just then, Hank leaned out the window. “Mrs. & Mrs. Dawson, can you come inside please? Slight problem with your cable.”

Kara and Lena exchanged a look and then headed inside. 

“Found something,” Hank said, pulling out a device that looked like the remote to an RC car. He waved it slowly over the trays of food the other neighbours had brought and it began to beep, as he moved across the trays, the beeping increased until it was almost a steady tone over a cake stand of brownies. Hank felt underneath the stand and removed a small device.

It was a bug. He clicked the button and turned it off. “Looks like one of ours,” he said, his brow furrowed in confusion. Kara stared at the bug and began to flash.

“Oh! Correction: that  _ was  _ ours. That bug was stolen from a CIA substation in Omaha in 2018. Now it belongs to Leviathan.”

Lena’s eyes widened. “And here I thought we were looking for a garden variety terrorist.”

Kara stood there silently, lost in thought. Was there a Leviathan agent here? Why then had she not flashed on them? Could it be someone else in the neighbourhood?

“You better hurry up buddy,” came an obnoxious voice from behind her. Turning, she found Otis grinning at her like an idiot. “Your wieners are burning!”

A group of neighbours came up behind him and laughed, smiling widely and waving to them. Kara forced a smile and waved back. This whole place felt so creepy.

“These people creep me out,” Hank muttered. 

Kara found that she didn’t disagree.

***

“It’s not a big deal, Lena. I can just sleep in one of the guest rooms, really.” 

Kara stood in her matching pajama set on one side of the bed, while Lena stood on the other in a black negligee. 

Lena stepped around the bed and lowered her voice. “I get it Kara, and I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, but if anyone is watching us or has the house bugged, it’s going to look suspicious if a happily married couple sleeps in separate rooms.”

She turned back to the bed and pulled back the duvet. “Look, there’s plenty of room, and the mattress is one of those that you can jump on without spilling a glass of wine, so you probably won’t even know I’m here.”

Kara stared at the pale skin that wasn’t covered by the lingerie and couldn’t help doubt her words. The idea that she wouldn’t notice  _ Lena _ was ridiculous. This whole thing was ridiculous. They hadn’t shared a bed since the Imra incident and now, when Kara had come to terms with the fact that she did in fact have real feelings for Lena,  _ now _ she was going to have to sleep next to her?

As she climbed into bed, she continued to mull over her predicament. She had realised that, while she had been happy to pick up where she left off with Lucy, she hadn’t really been truly happy. She had liked the  _ idea _ of her and Lucy. But now, as she lay next to Lena in bed, trying not to appear like a piece of plywood, she realised that Lucy had just been a placeholder. Her second choice. Lena had said they couldn’t be together, maybe in the future, but not now. And then Lucy had come along and given her instant gratification. But Lucy was not Lena. Not even close. And Kara wanted to punch herself for how she had behaved. 

It was Lena. It was always going to be Lena. She just had to figure out how to make her believe that. 

And if, when she woke up in the middle of the night to Lena cuddling up close to her, she wrapped her arms tightly around the agent as she fell back asleep...well that was no one’s business but her own.

***

The smell of coffee and bacon roused Kara from her deep sleep the next morning. Inhaling deeply, she looked to her right and found that Lena was not there. She pulled herself out of bed and made her way downstairs, yawning widely. 

She made her way to the kitchen and stopped in her tracks at the sight. Lena was standing at the stove, still in her lingerie, her skin glowing in the warm sunlight that filtered in through the kitchen window. Her hair hung loose down her back and glinted in the light. She was breathtaking. Kara blinked her eyes deeply to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

She entered the kitchen and made her way to the coffee pot, never taking her eyes off the agent. 

Lena turned when she heard her and gave her a bright smile. “Hi! Did you sleep well?”

Kara took in her bright eyes, wide smile, and enthusiastic question and became a little confused.  _ Oh, _ she realised,  _ she must be acting for whoever is watching us. _

“Like a log, honey! How did you sleep?” Kara said loudly, loud enough that any bugs around could pick it up. Lena furrowed her brow in confusion.

Kara stared back at her, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “What are you doing? Did--did Hank find any more bugs?”

Lena snickered at her, but spoke at a normal volume. “I’m cooking breakfast. Hank swept the house. It’s clean!”

“Oh,” said Kara, looking around at all the food Lena was preparing. Bacon was laying on paper towels to siphon off the grease, a large omelette was being prepared in the pan on the stove, and Kara’s heart nearly melted at the sight of pancakes on the griddle.

“Um, well, are we gonna invite the neighbours over or something?” She gestured to the food.

Lena turned back to her and laughed lightly. “No, silly. I’m cooking for you.”

Kara couldn’t help the small smile that crept across her face. Lena was cooking for her? She didn’t even know Lena knew how to cook. She had to pinch herself to make sure she was awake, because Lena in a house in the suburbs, cooking a delicious (and large) breakfast for her, in lingerie,  _ had  _ to be a fantasy her mind had conjured up.

Turning back to cut up some chives as a garnish, Lena caught the dumbstruck look on the blonde’s face. “What?”

“Nothing,” replied Kara, still smiling stupidly. “It’s just…funny.” She watched as Lena chopped up the chives with precision. “I never pictured  _ you _ ...doing this.”

“Well, what can I say? I’m versatile,” Lena dismissed with a wave of her hand. She grabbed the skillet off the stove and slid the perfectly cooked omelette onto a plate, garnishing it with the chives, before adding bacon and plating some pancakes for Kara on a separate plate. 

“Sit,” she ordered, laying the plates in front of her. “Oh! I almost forgot.” She turned back and grabbed a bottle of syrup that had been warming. Kara couldn’t believe this. She sat down and stared in disbelief as Lena served up her food with a small, hidden smile on her face. 

“Hold on, are--are you enjoying this whole Martha Stewart thing?”

Lena just gave her a wry smile, but said nothing. 

Kara barked out a laugh of disbelief. “I can’t believe it! You are! Please tell me you’re not going soft on me, Luthor,” she teased.

“Just shut up and eat your food,” Lena ordered, a teasing smile on her face.

Kara dug into the delicious food as ordered, and nearly moaned at the flavour. “You better be careful, Lena. One day you might actually turn into a real girl.”

Lena giggled softly before turning around to feed the dog some bacon.

Kara finished her breakfast and headed upstairs to get ready for work, her mind turning over what had just happened. She never would have guessed that badass superspy Lena Luthor was capable of domesticity, yet here she was, holding neighbourhood cookouts, making breakfast for her “wife”, and seemingly enjoying it. It was a new side to the agent that Kara had never seen before, and she rather liked it. She wondered if Lena would ever consider giving up the spy life for a life like this, or if this was just a mini-vacation for her.

Jogging down the stairs, she pulled on her shoes and Lena met her at the front door with a travel mug of coffee.

“Thanks, I’ll see you later.” She walked out the door, squinting in the bright California sun. She spotted Otis watering his lawn and waved. One of the other neighbours from the party was retrieving his mail and he waved to her as well. Everyone was insanely nice here. Spotting the newspaper on the pathway she bent down to pick it up and when she straightened up to continue walking to her car, a soft voice caught her ear.

“Baby!” Lena came rushing out of the house in her robe, her feet bare on the pavement. “Oh good, I caught you. Darling, I almost forgot, do you mind swinging by the store for me?” She handed a piece of note paper from the pad that had come from the HOA, to Kara, who saw it contained a grocery list, marked with a heart at the bottom of the page. 

“Oh yeah, sure,” Kara replied, still caught a little off guard by this whole display. Lena straightened her tie for her and smiled. 

“Have a great day at work, darling.” She leaned up on tiptoes and pressed a kiss to Kara’s lips. 

“O..kay..” Kara said groggily, the earth having shifted beneath her feet. She turned and climbed into the car, staring out at Lena, who was now holding the collar of their dog, in front of their house, waving to her.

She waved back and smiled, pulling out of the driveway. She had to mentally slap herself to remind herself that this wasn’t real. That wasn’t their dog, that wasn’t their house, this wasn’t their car, and they weren’t married.

The thought sat heavier in Kara’s heart than it should have. 

***

Standing in the Nerd Herd breakroom, Kara opened her locker and grabbed her pocket protector and stuffed it into her shirt, pulling out the list that Lena had given her. She looked down at the little heart and smiled softly.

Hank snatched the list out of her hand. “Wipe that look off your face.”

“What--wait that’s Lena’s groc--” she cut herself off when Hank flipped it over and pulled a small blacklight out of his pocket, revealing a hidden message written in invisible ink on the back.

**Location Clear.**

**Target on the move.**

“Invisible ink? Really? You guys can’t just use the phone?”

Hank looked at her in exasperation. “We’re dealing with Leviathan here, idiot. If they bugged your house, they bugged your phones for sure. Sometimes you’ve gotta do it the old fashioned way.”

Kara read over the message again. “Target on move? Wait, so you guys figured out who planted the bug?”

“Yeah,” Hank replied, handing her a file. “Ring any Intersect bells?”

Kara stared at the photo inside the file. It was Mercy’s husband. 

“Yeah, that’s crazy cougar lady’s husband. How do you know it’s him?”

Hank took the file back. “Well, while you and Luthor were busy playing house, I was doing some old fashioned spy work. Pulled a print off the bug and ran it through the database.”

Kara ignored the dig at her and Lena. “So who was this guy before Leviathan?”

“John Corben. CIA psy-ops. Agency shrinks. Real bunch of weirdos. Also ran his bank records. Turns out he bought enough of this stuff to stretch from here to Midvale.”

He handed her an order form for something called Infiniband. “It’s a data line. Same type of stuff we use to tap into the agency’s intranet. Any idea what he was using it for?”

Kara drew a blank. “I--I don’t know. Online gaming? Porn?”

Hank rolled his eyes. “Or?!”

“Or? I don’t--”

“Or hacking into government servers,” Hank finished, as if this was obvious.

“Or hacking into government servers,” Kara repeated quickly. “I was gonna say that eventually. Okay great! Glad you guys cracked it. Glad I could help.”

She turned back to her locker but was stopped by Hanks’ meaty hand gripping her shoulder.

“You can help by getting us into that house and onto that computer.”

Kara frowned. “You want me to go in as Nerd Herd?”

“Wrong again, Danvers. You’re gonna go in the old fashioned way.”

***

“Wait, you want me to  _ sleep with our neighbour?! _ ” 

They were standing in the secret base, which Kara had found out from the manual was codenamed ‘The Tower’. Hank was briefing Kara on what she was to do, and to put it mildly, Kara wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.

“No idiot, we want you to  _ pretend  _ to wanna sleep with her to see if you can get on her Leviathan agent husband’s computer, and see if you flash on anything. You wanna throw in a little sex? That’s your prerogative.” He sprayed some cologne on her, right under her chin, and the mist drifted right into her mouth, making her cough and gasp.

“Fine, okay. But I just don’t know how Lena is going to feel about this. I mean, there’s no way she’s going to let her  _ wife _ just sleep with--”

“You ready?” Lena came around the corner. She was wearing a pretty green floral print dress with her hair tied back with a black bow. Kara spared just a second to think about how cute she looked before the realisation of what she said set in.

Lena seemed to take her silence as discomfort, so she was quick to reassure her. “Listen Kara, I’m sorry, but this is our best option.” Kara could see the silent apology in her eyes.

“Target’s got the house rigged with security. And since the wife’s already expressed a romantic interest in you--”

“We need you to exploit it,” Lena finished.

“Oh exploit it?!” Kara exclaimed in exasperation. “Yeah, got it. Textbook CIA!”

Lena tilted her head in apology. “Look, Hank and I will be with you every step of the way.”

“And if the cougar gets a little hairy, you can always tap out,” Hank added with a sadistic grin.

“Look, we understand if this makes you uncomfortable,” Lena started.

“Breaking my fake wedding vows? Nah, forget about it, I’m golden,” Kara cut in sarcastically. She turned to Hank. “Just hit me with another spritz of that.”

Hank sprayed her neck again and then her crotch for good measure.

“Wh--why? Why here?!” She asked, gesturing around her zipper.

Hank just shrugged, walking away. Lena stood in front of Kara, eyes wide and soft. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Yep. I’m good,” Kara said shortly, before turning and walking away to get ready. She didn’t know why this bothered her, or why it irritated her that Lena didn’t seem to be bothered, but she knew she had no right to feel that way. She needed to get her shit together.

***

Kara stood outside Mercy’s house and tried to gather herself, inhaling deeply. 

_ “Let’s get on with it, nerd,” _ came Hank’s voice in her ear comm. 

Kara’s lip curled into a snarl, but she raised her fist and knocked three times, trying to position herself so she was leaning seductively on the door frame. She hoped she was pulling it off. 

The door opened and Mercy appeared, giving her a hungry once over. “Ms. Dawson. I didn’t expect you to come so quickly.”

Kara leaned on her arm and tried to be smooth. “Kara Dawson  _ always  _ comes quickly.”

Then she heard how that sounded and she stared off into space, wishing the ground would swallow her up.

_ “Real smooth, Danvers,” _ Hank quipped in her ear. In front of her, Mercy giggled.

“Come on in,” she stood aside to let Kara in and closed the door, leading her up the stairs.

_ “The cable enters the house through the northwest corner. Upstairs.” _

Mercy led her into the master bedroom and Kara felt her heart rate tick up, her anxiety kicking in full force. “Oh, hey. This is where the magic happens.”

Mercy stood behind her, reaching up and pulling Kara’s blazer off slowly. “What do you think your wife would say if she knew you were up here? You think she’d be jealous?”

Kara turned around to face her and Lena appeared in her mind, unbidden. She thought about how Lena had not seemed to be the least bit distraught over her potentially seducing another woman for the mission and her stomach dropped when she realised how badly she had fucked up for Lena not to care. 

“Well, it’s like you said, the honeymoon is over.”

Mercy smiled like a predator before ripping Kara’s shirt open, the buttons skittering everywhere.

“If you don’t mind me asking, when was the last time--” She undid Kara’s belt and unbuttoned her pants. “--you and your wife made love?” She yanked Kara’s trousers down, leaving her in just a bra and her boxer briefs.

“Oh well, that’s a--that’s a--um, that’s a good question, um--you know--things have been a little cold in that department lately.”

Mercy rose from her knees and ran her fingertips across Kara’s collarbones and down her chest, over her bra where she cupped the outside curve of her breast. “Aww, poor baby!”

She reached a hand up and caressed the nape of Kara’s neck, her nails scratching her scalp. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you, Kara?”

Without waiting for an answer, she shoved Kara back onto the bed.

“I--I have a pretty good idea,” said Kara weakly.

Mercy began to crawl up her body, dropping kisses as she went. Her voice dropped low and husky. “I’m gonna thaw you out.” She made her way back down Kara’s body and finished pulling her trousers all of the way off of her legs, followed by her socks.

Kara, meanwhile, was trying not to have an aneurysm.

“Ohhh I bet you are, you--you she-devil, you. You--oh! You’re taking my socks off. Oh gosh, okay---ah! Careful, I’m ticklish. Those are my feet--that’s my feet area. You know what? Maybe--maybe we could just talk for a few minutes. How does that sound?”

She distinctly heard an  _ “ugh” _ come through her comms from Hank.

Mercy barked out a laugh, making her way back up her body. “You didn’t come here to talk, Kara.”

“I didn’t? Why not? Talking’s perfectly--” She cut herself short at the sight of Mercy’s breasts hanging right in her face. “....Talking’s overrated anyway, isn’t it?”

A clicking sound caught her attention, and Kara removed her eyes from Mercy’s chest to see that she had attached one of Kara’s hands to the headboard with a pair of fuzzy handcuffs. She snapped back into reality.

“No! You know what? It’s just that I’m a little--I’m a little nervous because this is--the whole adultery game is a little new to me.” She continued rambling as Mercy left hot, wet kisses across her neck. “And I think--I think just a--just a drop--just a drink--a little liquid courage would  _ really  _ go a long way right now!”

Mercy pulled back with a frustrated sigh. “Is scotch alright?”

“Sounds delish.” 

Mercy rolled her eyes and headed downstairs and Kara took stock of her situation. “Crazy lady,” she muttered, pulling on the handcuffs. They didn’t budge. “Hank?! Hank, I’m handcuffed!”

_ “Relax, handcuffs are a cinch.” _

Kara’s shoulders dropped in relief. “Really?”

_ “Yeah. There’s a small bone in your thumb. Real easy to break. What you’re gonna wanna do is you’re gonna wanna apply torsional pressure to it until it snaps and then--” _

“I’m not gonna break my bone!!” Kara shout whispered into her comm.

_ “Well, in that case, you are screwed.” _

Kara glanced around the room desperately, searching for a solution. “Come on, think! Think!” Her eyes landed on the bedside table where Mercy had left the key, attached to a little jewel on a chain. Kara extended her free arm as far as it would go, but she could not reach it. Thinking quickly, she swung her leg up and over, picking up the keychain with her toes and carefully bringing it back, dropping it into her open palm. She quickly undid the cuff from the headboard and ran to the door, glancing around the corner. As far as she could tell, Mercy was still downstairs.

She stole out of the bedroom and down the hall to the northwest corner of the house. It appeared to be a home office, and Kara could see the Infiniband cables running into the back of the computer. She darted over to the computer and hit the spacebar. A command box appeared.

**Console Authentication:**

**1 > login: root**

**2 > password: |**

“Dammit. Password protected.” Kara wracked her brain for what it could possibly be, when a shiny black rock sitting next to the monitor caught her eye.  _ Obsidian. _

“Obsidian!” She typed the password into the command box and hit enter. It immediately began running a program and a second later, a second command box appeared.

**Console System Alert:**

**> usr/local/bin chmod**

**> bin/ run ts-a**

**> bin/ ts process**

**>**

**TEST SEQUENCE INITIATED**

Kara frowned and stared at the screen and moments later, images began flashing across the screen. Her eyes flew wide, flicking back and forth, taking in all of the encoded images as they flashed by. 

Then all of a sudden, the screen went blank but for one text box that flashed:

**TEST SEQUENCE SUCCESSFUL**

Kara fell back into the chair and saw the world go black.

***

Lena sat at the kitchen island and listened in horror as Mercy disrobed Kara and told her the things she wanted to do to her. 

She hated this. She didn’t want Kara anywhere near that woman, but they didn’t have a choice. She hoped that Kara understood. She felt a pang in her heart as she heard Kara tell Mercy that the honeymoon was over. 

This shouldn’t bother her. It was just a mission and nothing more. Kara had clearly moved on from her, and she needed to move on too. 

But still, she couldn’t help how good it made her feel, being here, pretending to be Mrs. Dawson. She would never admit it to herself, much less anyone else, but part of her liked the idea of a quiet domestic life. Free from life-threatening missions, inviting friends and family over, having a dog and lazy sunday mornings. More than that, she had enjoyed having this with  _ Kara _ . 

It was foolish. She needed to move on.

The sound of tires squealing pulled her out of her thoughts, and she looked up just in time to watch Corben’s car careen around the corner and rocket into the driveway. 

_ Shit. _

“Okay, Kara? Kara, you have to get out of there.” 

There was no answer. 

“Kara? Kara!” She tried to quell the panic that was rising in her chest.

_ “Stay where you are, Agent Luthor, I’m going in after her.” _

Lena paced around the kitchen anxiously. Why wasn’t she answering? What had happened. She clutched the island in an attempt to steady herself as her legs threatened to give out.

***

Kara came to and found herself slumped in a computer chair. She heard a door open downstairs.

A deep British voice carried up the stairs to her ears. “Have you tested her yet?”

“She’s upstairs,” Mercy replied, “I’ve got her cuffed.”

Kara heard the sound of shoes on the stairs and she pulled herself out of the chair and over to the window, pulling it open and climbing out onto the roof over the garage. The shingles burned her bare feet, but she forced herself to keep moving, hopping across the roof as carefully as she could. 

She leapt from the corner of the roof onto the garden wall, but lost her balance and fell into the hedge below with a yelp. Pulling herself out of the bush, she walked quickly back to the mailbox marked ‘Dawson’ and tried to ignore the stares, as she became aware of the fact that she was still only in her bra and underwear, with a furry handcuff dangling from her wrist.

She power walked past Otis, who greeted her with a confused, “Kara.” She saluted to him and kept walking, running the last few steps up to the house, just as Lena walked out the front door. Kara took a millisecond to appreciate once again how cute she looked with her hair tied back in a bow, then she ran to stand in front of her.

“You are never going to believe what just happened to me over there.”

Lena took her in with a mix of shock and relief. She looked down at Kara’s attire, or lack thereof, and tried not to get distracted by all the golden skin and toned muscles on display.  _ Kara had abs. _ She took note of the furry handcuff still attached to her wrist and then saw the cul-de-sac full of neighbours that had come out of their homes to watch the confrontation. Realising what needed to be done to protect their cover, she opened her eyes wide, to allow the bright sunlight in and make them fill with tears, then she pulled her arm back and slapped Kara right across the face, hard, before turning on her heel and running back into the house, slamming the door behind her.

Kara stood in the front yard in shock, her face throbbing from where Lena had struck her. She lifted the furry cuff and held it to her smarting cheek. Where the hell did that come from?

***

“I sent you there undercover, and you not only nearly exposed Ms. Danvers to Leviathan, but to an entire cul-de-sac of civilians?!”

General Haley’s voice grew louder with each word, making Kara wince.

“No excuses, General,” replied Hank, “we pooched it.”

Kara stared at him in disbelief. “Wh--no! No we didn’t!” She turned back to the monitor. “We didn’t pooch it, General. Look, I--I saw something on that computer, okay? I saw...pictures.”

“How illuminating,” said Haley, her face twisting down into a frown.

“General, they weren’t regular pictures. They were like Intersect pictures--embedded files! Like the ones that James sent me, only...very different.”

Lena spoke up. “We think Kara could have Leviathan programming in her brain.”

Haley’s eyes widened. “In that case, I am pulling Ms. Danvers from this operation. But as long as Agent Luthor’s cover is intact, I want you two to lock down the cul-de-sac, monitor Leviathan, and see what else you can uncover  _ before  _ we make a move on their cell. The Dawsons are getting a divorce.”

With that, the monitor blinked off. Hank stood up and stalked off to go prep. Kara turned her head to look at Lena. She noticed the agent was pointedly not looking at her. 

“Are you okay?”

Lena finally turned to face her then, giving a brief nod. “I’m fine. I have to go prep for the mission.” She stood up and started to walk away, but Kara quickly darted around the table to cut off her path.

“Hey, wait! I can tell something’s wrong.”

Lena hesitated before speaking. “I just--I’m sorry I put you in danger again. It’s my fault you downloaded those Leviathan files, and I’m worried because we don’t know what the dangers of that are.” She pulled her arms across her chest, hugging herself, turning her eyes to the floor. Her voice dropped to little more than a whisper. “And I’m sorry I hit you.”

Kara gave a soft smile. “Hey, don’t worry about that. I think you’re entitled to one good slap when your fake wife fake cheats on you.”

She saw the corner of Lena’s lip quirk up slightly. “And...as far as the Leviathan stuff...I don’t know, I see this as a win. If they gave me any of their information, it should only make it that much easier to tell who’s rogue and who’s not, right?”

Lena nodded but continued to avoid her eyes. 

She reached out and rubbed her shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay, I promise. I’m okay. Everything is fine.” 

Lena raised her head and looked at her with sad eyes. They stood there like that for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes, Kara’s thumbs rubbing slow circles on Lena’s shoulders, until finally Lena cleared her throat and pulled away. “I--I have to go prep.”

“Right,” Kara replied. “Be safe.”

Lena walked away without another word.

***

Kara headed into the breakroom the next morning to put her bag in her locker, when a piece of paper fell out. She bent down and grabbed it off the floor. It was Lena’s grocery list. The little heart at the bottom pulled a smile out of her, before her eye was drawn to the bottom of the page, to the name of the neighbourhood,  _ Argo Heights. _

Her eyes rolled back in her head as she began to flash. She saw the sign at the entrance of the cul-de-sac, a mapped layout of the entire subdivision, the faces of her neighbours, and the companies that Leviathan used as a front. 

_ The whole neighbourhood was a Leviathan faction! _

Shoving her bag into her locker, she grabbed her phone and dialed Lena. It went to voicemail.

“Lena! Lena, you and Hank have to get out of that neighbourhood immediately! I just flashed--I just flashed on something but it was Leviathan. It was something that I uploaded off of the computer, okay? The company that built the neighbourhood? It’s a front. It’s not just Corben’s house...the whole neighbourhood is Leviathan!”

***

Lena stood at the window of the cover house, peeking through the curtains. Everything looked so normal. She saw Hank in his cable truck parked down the street. Her phone buzzed.

Turning away from the window, she looked down and saw it was Kara. She was just about to answer when Hank’s voice crackled in over her comms.

_ “Agent Luthor, I have unknowns moving in on your position.” _

She tossed her phone down and grabbed her gun, positioning herself behind the front door. A moment later, the doorbell rang. She peered through the peephole. It was Otis’ wife, holding a pan of brownies. She frowned, tucking her gun into the waistband of her skirt, and opening the door.

“Hello,” she said, as brightly as she could manage.

The thin blonde stared up at her with wide cow eyes and then spoke softly, “I’m so sorry about what happened with your husband. It must have been awful. It’s times like these you need your neighbours most.”

She handed the pan of brownies to Lena, who took it with a small smile. “Oh, thank you! Please, come in.”

She turned to take the brownies to the kitchen and was met with Mercy, standing in front of her with a gun pointed at her head. She felt Otis’ wife grab the gun from her waistband.

“Hope you like brownies,” Mercy sneered, as the other agent kicked the door closed. They led her out of the back of the house before blindfolding her, and then everything was dark.

***

Hank watched Corben’s house from his seat in the cable truck, but so far had spotted no suspicious activity. Corben didn’t even appear to be home. He sighed, but perked up when he spotted two women heading up the driveway to Lena’s house.

“Agent Luthor, I have unknowns moving in on your position.” 

He turned his attention back to the house, where Corben’s car had just pulled into the driveway, when a shadow appeared to his left. He turned, it was Otis. 

“Excuse me! I was wondering if you could give me a hand with my cable?” He smiled a wide, goofy grin that made Hank want to punch him.

“If you’re looking for premium channels, I’m not the guy,” Hank replied.

“Oh no! Nothing like that. It’s just--for some reason, I keep getting some kind of weird interference. I think somebody in the neighbourhood must be running some kind of high-powered electronic equipment.”

He pointed toward Corben’s house. “Actually, I think it might be that house right over there.” 

As Hank turned to look, Otis shoved a taser against his neck, and a crackling electric shock sent him down onto the seat, his body twitching, before everything went dark. 

***

Kara was definitely breaking several traffic laws. She was driving as fast as the stupidly safe Volvo would go. Soon enough she was pulling into the cul-de-sac, past the  _ Argo Heights _ sign, and into the driveway of the cover house.

She flung the door open and threw herself out of the seat, dashing toward the front door, but Otis met her out on the pathway.

“Looking for the wife? She’s having a chat with the ladies.”

As Kara stared into his annoyingly happy face, she began to flash on him. Otis Graves, CIA Psy-Ops, now a Leviathan operative. 

Otis frowned at her. “You feeling alright, buddy?”

Kara turned away from him and looked around at the neighbourhood, the gravity of the situation beginning to hit her as she began to flash on her neighbours. One. By. One. 

Special Forces, Psy-Ops, Assassins, Spooks. All equally terrifying, and equally deadly. 

Kara felt her heart rate skyrocket to dangerous levels before a taser was shoved against her neck, and everything went dark.

***

“How’s her blood pressure?”

“A little high, shall I give her more sedative?”

“No.”

Kara felt her head loll on her shoulders as her eyes tried to groggily blink open. 

“Lena?”

“She’ll be fine. We can proceed.”

“Lena?” Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. Her eyes fell closed again and she felt something being attached to her head, forcing it to stay in place. A chin strap was placed around her jaw.

“Where’s Lena?”

No one answered. She forced her eyes open again and looked around the room. There were no windows. They appeared to be in some kind of underground laboratory. She was strapped into a chair, unable to move any of her limbs, nor her head. There were Leviathan agents all around her in white coats, going about their business as if she wasn’t even there.

“Where’s Lena?! Where’s my wife?!” She shouted desperately. Mercy appeared at her side. 

“Ms. Dawson, she isn’t your wife. She’s a CIA agent, and so are you.”

Kara looked to her left and saw an observation room, walled off by glass. Inside was Lena, being held captive by agents with guns trained on her.

“What--what do you want with me?”

Otis rolled up on a stool on the other side of her. “You have got a very special brain! Don’t worry, we’re going to do everything we can not to damage it.”

“Damage? Damage--what are you talking about what? What is he talking about?”

“What you saw the other day was a small part of a computer program,” Mercy explained, while she filled out some paperwork. “The CIA designed it to implant intelligence directly into agents through encoded images.”

“But the CIA gave up on the program,” Otis interjected, “they decided to slug it out, fighting the war on terror using Cold War tactics.” He rolled his eyes in obvious annoyance.

“But we’re training agents who are ready to fight tomorrow’s wars,” said Mercy, leaning in to check her vitals. 

“How would you like to be a part of that future,” asked Otis, goofy grin back on his dumb face.

“How would you like to be part of Leviathan?”

Kara’s heart began to race and her breathing got heavier. She looked over to Lena, who was watching her with eyes wide with terror. 

“What about--what about her? Look, I’ll do whatever you want, just let her go.”

Mercy gave her an amused look. “Don’t tell me you have  _ feelings _ for your partner?”

Otis chuckled. “Boy, you really let her get into your head, huh?”

“What did she tell you,” Mercy continued, her voice taunting, “that someday, you two would be together? Maybe settle down in a cute little cul-de-sac like this one?”

Otis laughed out loud again. “Too funny!”

Mercy bent down so she was eye level with Kara. “This place? It isn’t real. Her feelings for you?  _ They aren’t real _ .”

Otis grabbed something off of the tray next to him and grinned. “Don’t worry, this next part should help you get over her...if you survive it.” And with that, he attached an implement to her eyes to keep them open, dropping eye drops into them every so often to keep them moisturised.

Soon though, Kara was alone in the lab, completely immobile. She could only watch as Corben began to boot up the program. She saw Lena shouting at the agents as three screens lowered, one in front of her, and one on each side, so she always had one in her line of vision, but she couldn’t hear what she was screaming.

They placed dark safety glasses on Lena, as well as the rest of the agents, to avoid seeing the images. And on Mercy’s go, Corben began the test.

Images began appearing on the screen, like the ones she had seen on the computer at Mercy’s house. Kara yelled out in pain. Her eyes burned and it felt like her head was going to explode. The images flipped faster and faster, each one carving a neural pathway in her brain. Kara felt her eyes roll back in her head and then, just as soon as it had started, it was over.

Mercy and Otis were the first into the room, followed by the rest of the agents, who pulled Lena in along after them.

“Kara?! Kara?!” Lena shouted her name as they forced her over to a corner of the room, but Kara was unresponsive.

She sat staring into space, open-mouthed. Corben waved a flashlight in front of her eyes, while Mercy and Otis undid the head gear holding her in place, as well as her cuffs.

“Ah, she’s toast,” Otis groaned in disappointment. 

“Kara?” Lena whispered. This couldn’t be happening. She felt like she was going to vomit.

“Ugh, get her out of here. Dump her where you dumped the others,” Mercy instructed.

All of a sudden Kara jolted awake, yelping. Everyone in the room jumped in surprise. Lena felt a wave of relief wash over her.

“What just happened?!” Kara shouted, eyes wide and chest heaving.

“Ms. Dawson,” said Mercy, awestruck that Kara was still alert. “Do you know where you are, Ms. Dawson?”

Kara stared blankly ahead, her brow furrowed. When she spoke, her voice was monotone and unemotional. “Beneath Argo Heights subdivision in a Leviathan lab that was built as part of a secret initiative.”

Mercy grinned wildly. “What initiative?”

“To rebuild the Intersect computer.”

Otis put his hands on his head, dumbstruck. “Oh my god, it worked.”

“Can I ask just one more question,” Mercy asked playfully, “do you mind if we...test your wife next?”

Kara’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “Wife? I don’t have a wife.”

Lena’s heart sank. Her Kara was gone. She was replaced by some evil Leviathan robot person, and now she was going to be fed encoded images that would likely kill her. She felt a sob rising in her throat that was threatening to wrench itself free.

***

Hank was struggling to get leverage on the cuffs that he had been placed in. The cell was empty except for the chair he was in, and he could hear no movement outside of the door. It wasn’t even a real cell, it looked more to him like an empty supply closet. The door didn’t even have a lock. 

Finally, he adjusted his hands so he could reach his left thumb. He located the small bone in his thumb and twisted as he pressed down, until he heard a snap. Pain shot up through his arm and his eyes rolled back into his head briefly before he gritted his teeth and pushed himself up out of the chair and out of the “cell”. 

There was no one around, just as he had thought. He glanced up and saw a length of the Infiniband cable running along the hallway and decided to follow it. Wherever it was going, that would likely be where Kara and Lena were.

***

Kara stood slowly and took a few tentative steps forward. The agents restraining Lena shoved her down into the chair Kara had just vacated, strapping her arms to the handles.

Kara opened and closed her eyes a few times and began to get her bearings. She had to do something, she couldn’t let them hurt Lena. But what?

Just then, she saw the door to the observation room open just a bit, before closing again. She looked down and saw Hank crawling into the room, kneeling in front of the computer. He looked up and caught her eye as he typed. She winked at him to let him know she was okay, and he nodded in return. 

She turned back to Lena. “Before you run the test, I’d like to say something to Agent Luthor.”

Mercy turned and grinned sinisterly. “Agent Luthor? Well, now we have a name.” Then she turned back to her task. Everyone was so distracted by prepping for another test sequence, no one noticed her move toward Lena, nor did they notice Hank in the observation room, sliding on a pair of safety glasses.

Kara stood directly in front of Lena, who looked up at her with tears in her eyes. Kara looked in the eyes, hard, and widened them slightly to signal to her that she was still in there, that she wasn’t gone. She saw the surprise and relief cross the agent’s face, saw the moment she saw Hank and caught onto the plan. 

Kara bent down to her level and got close to her face, never breaking eye contact. 

“Close your eyes,” she whispered softly.

Lena looked quickly at Hank, whose finger was hovering over the enter key, before squeezing her eyes shut.

As the test booted up, Kara reached out and grabbed Lena, tucking her head close to her chest and covering her ears. 

She could hear the screams of the Leviathan agents as they scrambled to avoid seeing the images, but there was nowhere for them to go. Hank had clearly blocked the door with something, and one by one, Kara could hear the thuds as their bodies dropped to the floor. 

Lena reached up and grabbed Kara’s hand away from her ear, squeezing it tightly, as if it were her only lifeline. Kara could feel her trembling in her arms. And then a moment later, everything was silent.

Kara pulled away and began undoing her bindings. “Are you okay?”

Lena gazed at her in stunned disbelief. “Yeah, are you?”

“I think so,” she replied honestly. They were both breathing heavily as Kara helped her out of the chair and she came to stand chest to chest with the blonde. Kara sank into the comfort of her multi-coloured gaze, and debated pulling her into a kiss. After everything they had been through, it certainly seemed like the moment warranted it.

Before she could make a decision, the door flew open and Hank stepped in. “Did somebody call the cable guy?"

Kara rolled her eyes.

***

Lena stood in front of the monitor for her solo debriefing with General Haley. She was afraid Haley was going to dismiss her from the agency for the close call they had had with Leviathan.

“Besides testing on humans, it appears that Leviathan is perilously close to completing their own Intersect computer, making Ms. Danvers more important than ever,” said Haley, sternly. “Her life has never been in more danger. The honeymoon is over, Agent Luthor.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“You and Major Henshaw are to shut down the base in the suburbs, and from now on, Kara is your only priority.”

“Yes ma’am.”

***

Kara leaned against the counter inside the Wienerlicious waiting for Lena to finish her debriefing. After the moment they had shared following the Leviathan test, Kara was ready to make her feelings known. She had it all planned out. She would take Lena back to the cul-de-sac, where they could indulge in the marriage fantasy for just a little longer, and she would pour her heart out to Lena, let her know that she was in this, that she had made a mistake, that she truly wanted her. She wanted to sweep the agent off of her feet.

The door to the back pushed open and Lena emerged, arms crossed over her chest, her brow furrowed. She looked lovely in a black cashmere turtleneck sweater, the arms pulled low over her fingers, and tight grey slacks. She was always such a vision, Kara thought.

“Hey! Everything okay?”

Lena looked up when she heard her voice and leaned against the counter, away from Kara. “Yeah! Just a routine debriefing.”

Kara watched her and she could tell there was something else going on under the surface. Lena was a bit more standoffish than she had been as of late, and it made her nervous. Whatever she had planned to say to the other woman left her head and she desperately tried to string some words together to ask what she wanted.

“Um, so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to swing by the--the ol’ cul-de-sac tonight?” She grinned, trying to soften the mood.

Lena stared at her silently, her face completely void of emotion. “Why?”

Kara’s heart dropped. Something had definitely happened. Or was this just another manifestation of how she had hurt her? She adjusted her glasses nervously. “Um. I don’t know, I--I mean, I figure we’ve still got the place and Alex still thinks we’re housesitting, so…”

She studied Lena’s features, which remained intentionally blank. 

“I don’t know, I thought maybe we could have a night in the suburbs? Order in? Watch a movie? No mission to worry about, just Mrs. and Mrs. Dawson...maybe have some fun?”

“Kara we can’t go back there. It was just a cover.” Her tone implied that she thought Kara didn’t understand that.

Her brows pulled together, forming a crinkle as she turned over Lena’s words. “Yeah…I know that...I just thought that--”

“Hank and I have to shut down the operation,” Lena cut her off, “Can we talk later?”

Kara frowned, staring at the woman who would not meet her gaze. “Yeah. Sure. Absolutely.”

She turned to walk away. 

“Uh, Kara?”

She turned back quickly.

Lena stepped forward, gesturing to her hand. “I’m gonna need that back.”

Kara looked down to her left hand where the wedding band sat. Looking from it back to Lena, she pulled it off of her finger and was immediately hit with a sad emptiness at the loss. “Sorry. Almost forgot.”

Lena gave her a tight smile and turned to walk away.

“Lena, wait.”

Lena stopped in her tracks, and Kara could see in the reflection in the window of the kitchen door that she had closed her eyes, her lips pressed in a thin line. She turned back slowly, slipping the ring into her pocket.

“Yes?”

Kara stepped toward her. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry. For everything, for--for how I treated you. For getting so wrapped up in Lucy and the idea of normal that I pushed you away, when all you’ve ever done is care about me.”

Lena shook her head, backing away. “Kara, it’s fine, I get it. You really don’t need to apologise anymore.”

“No, it’s not fine.” Kara took a step closer, closing the distance between them. “The truth is, when you said we couldn’t be together right now, it hurt. It hurt because I’m so in love with you that it makes me want to scream. And being around you everyday was killing me. So when Lucy came back, and she wanted to try to pick things up where we left off, I jumped in headfirst. I thought it would help me move on. I thought it would make things less complicated. But all I did was make you feel like a placeholder.”

She reached up and moved a lock of hair out of Lena’s face, behind her ear and gazed down into Lena’s blue-green stare, those gorgeous eyes filling with unfallen tears, like shallow pools. 

“But I’ve done so much thinking these past two months, and I realised, you were never the placeholder for Lucy. Lucy was the placeholder for you. It was always you. It’s always going to be you. And I know I hurt you, and I understand if you don’t feel the same way anymore. But I need you to know, without a doubt, that you are the one I want. I love you, Lena Luthor.”

Lena gazed up into the blonde’s eyes and wondered if she had really been that transparent, if her hurt had shown on her face. She wondered if she could trust Kara’s words, trust that things would not change again. 

“Thank you. Thank you for telling me that.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. She could feel her walls falling, but she would not crumble entirely. 

“I still care about you Kara, but--but I need some time, I think.”

She stepped backward out of the blonde’s grasp and hugged her arms across her chest. 

Kara nodded, letting her go. “Of course. Yeah, of course, I understand.”

Lena nodded and turned away. “I need to finish shutting down the op. I’ll see you later.” And with that, she pushed the kitchen door open and let it swing behind her. Only in the cold comfort of the walk in freezer did she finally let her tears fall.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment and kudos if you liked it.
> 
> Next week's chapter is a beast and I really hope you guys like it as much as I'm enjoying writing it!!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Road trip...sort of?
> 
> Kelly has some questions. 
> 
> General Haley has a surprise. 
> 
> (I literally can't give a summary without giving it all away 😭😭)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a big one you guys!! I hope you like it!!
> 
> If you don't, it's all William's fault. He insisted it was great. Mistakes are also his fault. (He's just so easy to blame.)
> 
> P.S. I am so sorry I have not been great about replying to comments. Life is just hectic, but I promise I read and appreciate every single one!! 💙❤

“Oh man, here comes the Noonan’s girl.”

Kara looked up from her comic book as Winn and Brainy jumped over the desk to go greet the delivery girl who brought them their lunch. She was undoubtedly attractive, and Winn had taken to ordering Noonan’s everyday since she had started working there, just to see her.

Kara rolled her eyes at their desperate display. They looked like a pair of drooling puppies. 

“29 orders this month,” said the girl with a bright grin. “One more and you get a free sticky bun!”

She watched as Winn blabbered on about the merits of sticky buns versus donuts until the girl held her hand out for the cash. Winn handed it to her. “Hey, do you have change?”

But the girl had already turned around and left. Kara cringed. Winn really needed a girlfriend.

Setting her  _ Supergirl _ comic book down, she went to walk around the desk to tease him, when a small black square of metal and plastic caught her eye on one of the laptop displays. Looking closer, her eyes rolled back and she began to flash.

It was a bug. 

Looking around quickly, she snatched it off the display and nearly ran to the backroom, looking for Hank. She found him back by the storage cage working freight.

“You’re getting sloppy, Hank. I mean, I understand that you have some kind of perverse desire to listen to everybody, but you really need to be more careful about where you hide your bugs.”

Hank frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”

“I just found  _ this, _ ” she held up the bug, “on one of our product displays. And not very well hidden, I might add.”

Hank took the bug out of her fingers and looked at it, deep in thought.

“Normally I’m a fan of your craftsmanship, if not your methods,” she continued. “But if something like this was discovered by someone less in the know than me, that could be trouble.”

Hank finally looked up, pocketing the bug. “You worry about the supercomputer in your brain, and let me worry about the spy stuff, okay?”

He walked away without another word, leaving Kara frowning in his wake.

***

Lena handed her last patron her food just as Hank walked in the door. He looked around before stepping up to the counter.

“We have a problem.”

She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

He set the bug down on the counter between them. “Kara just found  _ that  _ in the Nerd Herd.”

Lena felt her heart drop into her stomach. “Shit. We have a problem.”

Closing the store, they headed down to The Tower and began researching the bug. They were interrupted some time later by Kara, coming down the stairs on her lunch break. “Did you guys find anything on that bug I found?”

“I did some digging. The bug is a GLG-20, one of the most advanced espionage listening devices in the CIA arsenal,” Hank explained. “A batch of these were stolen from a CIA warehouse in Barstow. The theft was traced to Leviathan.”

Kara went pale. “Wait. So--so Leviathan knows I’m here? They know about me?” Her voice came out squeaky with fear. “This is it, isn’t it? This is when the CIA locks me in some padded cell never to see the light of day again, isn’t it?”

Lena smirked. “It’s going to be fine, Kara. We’ll find the mole and nothing will have to change, okay?”

Just then the power went out, casting the base into total darkness. Kara yelped in fear. 

“Relax, dingus, it’s just a blackout,” Hank reprimanded. “Haven’t you lived in California your whole life?”

Kara ignored him. She was rather stressed at the moment, and who knew if it was just a blackout or a ninja assassin coming to kill her?

A moment later the backup generator kicked on and Kara began to calm down. Lena walked over to her and grabbed her hands, rubbing her thumb over her knuckles softly. “It’s going to be fine. Just go back to work, and we’ll call you once we’ve captured the mole.”

Kara breathed deeply and nodded. Something about Lena helped center her, and she decided to trust her that everything would be okay. 

Kara resisted the urge to hug the agent. They still had not talked about things since she had confessed her feelings to Lena, but the agent was not avoiding her, and even seemed to be a tiny bit warmer to her than she had been as of late. Kara took that as progress. She would trust Lena this time, like she should have been doing all along.

***

It was late that evening, having made no progress on finding out who the mole was, that Hank and Lena were video-conferencing with General Haley, filling her in on what they had found.

“The bug was stolen by Leviathan,” Hank finished.

General Haley’s whole demeanour changed at those words. Her already impeccable posture went impossibly more rigid. “How did Leviathan figure out where Kara was?”

“We don’t know,” Lena replied softly. “But we don’t know for a fact that they know about Kara. They may have just made Hank or myself, and are trying to keep tabs on us.”

Haley ignored her. “Where is Kara now?”

“At the Nerd Herd,” Lena replied.

“Permission to drop the twerp into a deep dark hole, General?” Hank joked.

“Granted.”

Hank and Lena’s heads snapped up to stare at the monitor in disbelief. “Huh?”

“It’s over. The Human Intersect Project has become too hard to control. I can’t afford to wonder anymore if this team, or Kara Danvers, is a liability!”

Lena stared at the screen in horror. “What are you saying, General?”

“I’m saying I’m shutting down this project. Kara is going into lockdown. She’ll be taken to Washington and put into a secure facility once and for all!”

Lena’s pulse beat erratically below her skin and she heard Hank murmur sadly, “Operation Moron is over?” 

She caught her breath and tried to step in. “You’re making a mistake, General.”

“I have made my decision, Agent Luthor,” Haley replied sternly. 

“Kara isn’t going to go down without a fight,” she shot back, furious.

“That’s why there won’t be one.”

She furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

Haley sighed, folding her hands on the desk in front of her. 

“Kara trusts you, Lena. She believes that you would never betray her. Use that. Go to Kara. Tell her that we intercepted a Leviathan communication regarding the Nerd Herd, and you need her to stay in The Tower until the threat is neutralised, that agents are already on the move. Major Henshaw will be waiting here. He will tranquilise Kara. Then he will wait for the extraction team to arrive for her transfer. That is all.”

The screen blinked off and Lena was left staring at her horrified expression reflected in black next to Hank, who seemed unperturbed. 

This could not be happening. She had told Kara everything would be okay and now they were going to send Kara underground. She would never see her again. Kara would never see her family again. She was going to have to lie to her, betray her trust. 

She turned to Hank angrily. “How can you just stand there and say nothing?”

Hank moved away, loading a tranquiliser gun and shrugging. “Haley is right. Safest place for Kara is underground. She’s lucky she stayed out this long. What do you think is going to happen to her if Leviathan gets to her, huh?”

Lena didn’t answer. She couldn’t think about that. She felt her breaths coming quickly and she tried desperately to shove the wave of panicked nausea down. Hank was right. Kara needed to be safe, and maybe this would not be a permanent move. 

She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply, and headed to the Nerd Herd.

***

Lena stood just inside the door, watching Kara walk toward her, finished for the night. She greeted the blonde with a bright smile. 

“I have good news! We found the mole!”

Kara looked stunned. “Wow. What? How? That was fast!”

Lena took a deep breath and forced herself to keep smiling as she continued. “One of our recon teams intercepted an internal Leviathan communication. They’ve already moved on their position, but Haley wants us to keep you down in The Tower until they’re brought in, just as a precaution.”

She shrugged, still forcing the fake smile. “It’s all over!”

Kara’s shoulders dropped in relief, and Lena could practically see the stress leaving her body in waves. Then she fixed Lena with a sincere stare. “Lena, I owe you an apology.”

Lena furrowed her brow. “What? Why?”

Kara took a deep breath. “Because I was really starting to worry that maybe I wouldn’t be able to trust you and Hank. That the CIA would just bury me underground somewhere. That they’d always put their interests ahead of mine."

She fixed Lena with a soft smile. "But not you. You’ve always looked out for me. So thank you.”

Lena felt the smile fall from her lips. She looked back and forth between Kara’s crystal blue eyes, shining with gratitude and relief. 

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t lie to her. She would not be the reason Kara spent the rest of her life away from sunlight.

She made a choice.

Stepping closer to Kara, keeping her back facing the security cameras she was sure Hank was watching, she pulled Kara into a tight hug.

She felt Kara’s strong arms wrap around her and she pressed her lips close to the blondes’ ear, dropping her voice to a whisper.

_ “Take off your watch.” _

She felt Kara go rigid in her arms, then heard her whisper back, “Why?”

Lena closed her eyes as she felt them fill with tears. “Because it’s all a lie. The mole is still out there. Haley sent me to get you to bring you back to The Tower. They  _ are _ going to take you underground.”

Pulling back to look her in the eyes, her tone was firm but soft. 

“We have to run.”

She heard Kara’s breathing pick up and then she felt her pull out of the hug, fiddling with the clasp on her wrist. Lena stood in front of her, purposefully blocking the camera. Then she took her hand and led her out of the store, casually dropping the watch into the shopping baskets by the door. 

Rather than head back to the Wienerlicious, she led Kara to her car and drove off into the night, only stopping briefly to pick up some essentials. 

They rode in silence for what seemed like hours. 

“You’re disobeying orders for me?” Kara asked, fear clear in her voice. “You’re committing treason, Lena. You could go to jail.”

Lena just stared ahead at the road, urging the car to go faster. 

“I know.”

***

“The safety of the Intersect is no longer my main concern,” Haley stated.

Hank was in his apartment at his desk, going over the facts. Lena and Kara had gone AWOL and there was still a Leviathan mole to deal with. He was furious, and so was the General.

“I want you to hunt Agent Luthor and the Asset down. Bring them back--dead or alive.”

Hank’s eyebrows shot up at the command.  _ Dead or alive? _ The order made him feel queasy, but like a good soldier, he shoved it aside.

“Understood, General.”

“Once the Intersect is in our possession, this mission will be over and you will have your pick of assignments. Your country thanks you... _ Colonel _ Henshaw.”

Hank straightened up at the new title. He couldn’t help the swell of pride in his chest at the new distinction. 

As if she could sense it, Haley added: “Congratulations, Colonel. You’ve earned it.”

He nodded curtly. “Got it.”

Signing off, he loaded his guns and headed over to Kara’s apartment to see if he could find any trace of where they might be headed. He climbed through her window and began pulling open drawers, digging through papers, trying to access her computer. He was rifling through her desk when Kelly found him.

“Hey Hank. Whatcha doing here, buddy?” She cocked an eyebrow, and his hand made its way back to the pistol in his waistband.

“Uhhh, Kara hasn’t been showing up to work, I was looking for some clues as to where she might be.”

Alex stepped into the room behind Kelly in her blue scrubs. “Hi Hank! You’re looking for Kara? I just heard from her.”

Hank perked up. “Really? She just called?”

“Yeah, she left a voicemail, not five minutes ago.” Her voice took on an annoyed tone. “We were supposed to go cake tasting this weekend and she decided to go out of town.”

“Oh! Well, uh, well good. Glad--glad to hear she’s safe. Sorry about all this,” he said, gesturing to the mess, “just a nervous Nelly, I guess. Have a nice day!” He climbed back out of the window and headed back to his apartment.

Kelly frowned at his odd behaviour. “Baby, we’ve got to get a lock for that window.”

Racing into his apartment, Hank ran to his computer and began running a trace program on Alex’s phone. Dialing a number, he called into the NSA op line. “I need emergency tracking on an unregistered line that dialed the following number 5 minutes ago…”

He was going to catch them. They couldn’t run from him.

***

Kara opened the door to the shabby motel room and flicked on the lights. It was bare. A table and two chairs sat in the corner and in the middle of the room was one queen-sized bed. Kara’s blood pressure skyrocketed at the sight and she choked on her own saliva.

Lena looked at her in concern. 

“Um, well, this is...nice. Uhhh, as you can see there is only one bed. A little presumptuous, if you ask me. Should I have asked for separate rooms?” She was so nervous. This whole ordeal was nerve-wracking and now she was adding bedsharing with Lena to her list of stressors.

“No, it’s fine,” Lena said with a polite smile. “As long as we’re on the lam I can’t let you out of my sight anyway, so…”

She set her bag down on the table. “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

“I’m gonna assume that whole ‘out of sight’ thing doesn’t really apply right now.”

Lena looked back and gave her a tired but amused smile, before entering the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

Kara sighed and kicked off her shoes, stripping down to her t-shirt and briefs, hopped into bed and flicked on the TV. But she couldn’t pay attention to what was happening on the screen. All she could think about was the fact that her life as she knew it was over. Either she would have to spend the rest of her life on the run, or she’d wind up under 24/7 surveillance in a padded cell, while Lena went to jail. Neither was an appealing option.

There was a third option, where they found the mole themselves and convinced General Haley to let Kara stay free, but convincing the General of anything seemed like a pipe dream. She sighed, directing her attention back to the screen. How had her life gotten knocked so far off course? 

And then there was the whole ‘telling Lena I love her but she hasn’t said it back yet’ thing. Granted, going on the run with her, knowing she would go to prison if caught, sure seemed like a declaration of love, but maybe Lena just felt like this was her duty: protecting Kara, even if it was from the government itself. Her thoughts swirled around, overwhelming her.

The bathroom door opened and Lena emerged, her dark hair tied up in a loose bun, exposing her pale neck. A loose grey t-shirt hung off her shoulder and Kara trailed her gaze down her body to find that she was not wearing pants, just underwear.

Her pulse raced as the agent stepped over to the opposite side of the bed, pulling the sheets back.

“I’ll---I’ll sleep on the floor,” she offered, pushing the covers off of her.

“No, Kara, it’s okay.” The agent climbed into bed next to her and took her hair down, letting it flow down her back like ink spilling across a blank page. Kara’s mouth was suddenly very dry.

She lay back in the bed and tried to get her thoughts under control. The one question that kept sticking out was why was Lena doing this? Why was she going to these lengths for her? What were her feelings?

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because the floor is gross and I’m not going to make you sleep on it,” Lena said with a laugh.

“No, no I mean, why are you here, risking everything you’ve worked so hard for?”

Lena sighed, turning over to face her, her features soft and open. “Because, after everything you’ve done for this country, you don’t deserve to be locked away in some facility. You deserve a chance. You deserve to get the Intersect out of your head and have a chance at a normal life.”

Kara was overwhelmed with emotion at her words. “Thank you.” It was all she could manage to push out around the lump in her throat.

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job to protect you.”

“And what about when it’s not your job? What happens to us then?”

Lena laid silently in thought, mindlessly rubbing the material of the sheets between her fingers. “One mission at a time, Kara.”

And with that, she rolled over and turned off the lamp, covering them in darkness. Kara laid awake, hyper aware of Lena’s presence, hyper aware of every irregular intake of breath, aware of every sigh and movement as the agent fell asleep. 

Lena was still on her side, facing away from Kara, while Kara laid rigidly on her back. She wanted nothing more than to roll over and wrap her arms around the woman, and pull her in close. To breathe in her scent and be surrounded by her. But she didn’t know if that would be received well, and the last thing she wanted to do was make Lena uncomfortable after everything she had done for her. 

She listened to the regular pattern of the woman's breathing next to her until finally sleep took her.

***

_ Telecom Tracking Complete. Location Verified. _

Hank grinned at the screen and slid a clip into his pistol. “Gotcha.”

Now he just had the small matter of the mole to deal with. He had ordered a sweep of the store, searching for any more bugs or hardware left behind by Leviathan.

“Update?” He growled down the line.

“Yes sir,” came the voice from the other end, “we cleared the entire store and completed a sweep. We discovered another 27 listening devices and one signal repeater hidden around the site, all traceable to the warehouse theft.”

“Roger that,” he replied, grabbing his keys. “Run the surveillance tapes for any suspicious activity. Keep me updated on any progress.”

Leviathan had been in the Nerd Herd almost thirty times. If they had sent the same agent, they’d stick out like a sore thumb. If they hadn’t...then his job got that much harder. For now, he was going to focus on the easier mission: bringing his two idiot partners back out of the cold.

***

Warm rays tickled Kara’s eyelids as she desperately tried to cling to sleep. The bed was more comfortable than she had expected, the world outside was a stressful place, and the body pressed against her was warm and soft. She had been dreaming of something innocuous involving Lena (they were feeding the ducks in the pond behind the park downtown), and she tried her best to stay in the fuzzy haze of that place.

Soft movement next to her had her floating back to consciousness, though not entirely there yet. Tightening her grip on the bundle of covers beside her, she felt fingers trail lightly across hers where they were gripping the blanket. She sleepily raised her index finger to catch the ones dancing over her own.

A warm hand gripped hers softly, and she used the opportunity to pull the pleasantly warm body closer to hers, nuzzling into the soft flesh of her neck, smelling the austere scent of bodywash and gunpowder.

_ Lena. _

Kara was suddenly very awake, every sense alight. Her head shot off the pillow, taking in the way Lena’s body was pressed back into hers -- little spoon style -- and the sleepy softness with which she was holding her hand. She felt hope bloom inside her chest. Subconsciously, Lena had moved toward her in the night again. Subconsciously, she was holding her hand and allowing her to nuzzle her neck. Did she dare risk waking Lena to take things further? Would Lena still feel the same once her eyes were open to the world?

Laying her head back down on the pillow, she ran her finger across the agent’s palm, and was rewarded with the feeling of Lena slowly threading their fingers together. They fit perfectly, like the last pieces of blue sky in a 5000 piece puzzle. Taking their intertwined hands, Kara wrapped their arms around Lena’s stomach and gently pulled her closer, dropping a soft and daring kiss on the place where her shoulder met her neck.

Lena’s eyes flew open and she turned her head quickly, finding Kara’s wide eyes. Had she gone too far? Was it over?

There was a moment -- just a moment -- of silence. A moment of Lena’s eyes boring into Kara’s, as if searching for something, for an answer to a question that hadn’t even been asked. Then, as if she had found her answer, she grabbed Kara’s face with both hands and pulled her into a hard kiss.

The abruptness took her by surprise, but more than that was the desperation with which Lena kissed her. It was harsh and fast, hard and deep, all teeth and tongue and hands gripping her face like she was afraid Kara would drift away if she didn’t hold tight.

Kara dove into her with ignited passion, tasting the warm saltiness of her tongue, reveling in her sweet breath panting against her lips. She trailed her hands down her body, grabbing her hips and firmly (but gently) pulling them toward her, pressing her body fully against the agent. She felt her moan softly into the kiss, wrapping her legs around Kara’s hips, using her strong thighs to pull Kara down on top of her.

Kara’s body was on fire. Every single place their skin was touching burned as if by being caressed by an open flame. Sliding her hands up Lena’s side, she pushed up the soft grey t-shirt, revealing the pale pink skin underneath. It was soft -- downy, even -- and Kara pulled her face away to press a kiss to the smooth malleable skin of her tummy. Hearing her breath hitch, Kara trailed her eyes back up to Lena’s and found her staring at her, breathless, pupils blown. 

“Is this okay?” She let her fingers drift across the soft skin of her belly as an explanation. She didn’t want to go too far, didn’t want to read the situation wrong. Lena said nothing, her chest heaving, but eventually she nodded slowly. Kara dropped kisses across her stomach, moving up her torso, pulling the shirt with her until Lena raised her arms and let her pull it off of her. 

After that, things went a bit hazy. Lena’s breasts were on full display, perfectly round and pale, her nipples growing stiff in the cool motel room air. Kara, historically, was absolutely a boob girl. And these were probably the best breasts she had ever seen in her life, including the ones she had seen on tv. 

She kissed her way up Lena’s sternum, leaving hot, wet open-mouthed kisses all over her stomach and chest before she landed where she wanted to be, taking a stiff pink nipple into her mouth and laving her tongue over it. She did not miss the way Lena’s head tilted back in pleasure, nor did she miss the soft moan that escaped from her throat. Cupping both breasts in her hands, she switched back and forth between the pair, not wanting either one to feel left out. 

As she nibbled down gently on the stiff little bud, Lena’s hips thrust forward, her center running over her thigh, allowing Kara to feel the growing patch of wetness through her panties. All the molten heat that was spread all over her body made an abrupt trip to her clit at the realisation, and she pushed her way up the agent’s body, dropping little nips and kisses across her collarbones and neck until she made her way back up to her lips. 

“Wanna taste you, Lena,” she whispered softly against the other woman’s kiss-bruised lips, nudging her cheek with her nose. “Can I?”

She was not prepared for the whimper that escaped Lena as she eeked out a breathless, “Yes.” 

Kara watched a pretty pink flush spread across her cheeks and down her neck, ending at her chest and couldn’t suppress the fond smile that overtook her. Lena was gorgeous, spread out below her, her hair spread out on the white pillow like black paint spilled onto a blank canvas. 

Kara began kissing her way back down her body, stopping at the moles and freckles that peppered her skin, paying extra attention to the one right in the center of her neck. 

She was torn between the desire to take her time and savour the moment, and the desire to pull Lena into her mouth and take her before the world crashed down around them or Lena changed her mind. 

But Lena did not seem to be in any mood to change direction, not with the fluttering breaths that were leaving her body as Kara ran her mouth over every succulent bit of skin that had been bared. 

Kara hooked her fingertips into the waistband of Lena’s panties and glanced up for one final acknowledgment of consent. Lena reached out and grasped a fistful of blonde locks, nodding quickly. Kara kissed her just above the elastic band and eased them slowly off her round hips, dropping kisses over every inch of new flesh exposed. 

Flinging the unnecessary garment over her shoulder, Kara gazed down at Lena in awe. The raven-haired woman spread her legs slowly, revealing exactly how wet Kara’s ministrations had left her. 

Kara leaned in, pulling one of her long pale legs over her shoulder and taking in the exquisite sight that lay before her. “God, Lena,” she said with an awestruck sigh. “You’re perfect.”

Lena pinkened further and threw an arm over her eyes, as if to shield herself from Kara’s compliments and loving gaze. The blonde reached up and gently tugged her arm away. “Hey, don’t hide. Wanna see you.” She intertwined her fingers with the hand she had just removed, and pushed herself down further, kissing her way up Lena’s pale, slick thighs. 

The sound Lena made when Kara laid her tongue broadly across her clit was one that immediately lodged itself in Kara’s permanent memories, and made her desperate to wrest it from her again.

She licked and sucked, drawing shortened, gasping breaths from the agent as she drew her closer to her, grabbing fistfuls of her ass with her free hand.

“God, Kara,” she gasped out, panting breathlessly as Kara moved down to dip her tongue inside,  _ “Fuck.” _

Kara kept her rhythm up. She may not have been good at being a spy, but she was damn sure going to prove to Lena that she did in fact have a very particular set of skills. This was the woman of her dreams. Something rare and beautiful to behold. A holy text, writ in a foreign tongue, that Kara was desperate to translate.

When she felt Lena start to clench around her tongue, she pulled it out, moving up to suck on her clit again. “Wanna be inside you,” she murmured between breaths. “Wanna feel you.”

“Yes, please, fuck, god, yes!” Lena rambled out, nearing incoherence as her orgasm approached. Kara slid her fingers up through Lena’s slick lips, gathering the juices that had accumulated from her efforts and slid two inside, fucking in deep and slow. 

Lena keened loudly and the hand in her hair gripped tighter as her hips bucked up at the welcome invasion. “More,” she gasped, her voice coming out as nothing more than a moan. “Need more. Harder, god,  _ please! _ ”

Kara slid a third finger inside and laved her tongue over her clit, and Lena moaned loudly at the fullness, her walls fluttering around the intrusion. Kara pressed forward, fucking deeply in earnest, finding the spot that she knew would send her beloved agent over the edge. 

“God you’re so good, Lena. Taking me so well.” She pressed in deeper, felt Lena’s thighs shake against her cheek, heard her moan at the praise. “Want you to come for me. Let go for me, baby.”

Lena cried out as she flew off the proverbial cliff, squeezing her eyes shut, her mouth left open in a silent scream as Kara caught her on the way down and helped her ride out the waves of pleasure she was drowning in, the two of them collapsing stars, burning out in a sea of passion.

When Lena’s breaths finally returned to a less alarming pace, Kara withdrew her fingers and brought them to her lips, tasting Lena’s salty sweet come, nearly moaning in ecstasy. She opened her eyes to find Lena staring at her, eyes wide and dark, her pupils almost eclipsing the blue green gaze that usually stood in their place.

Kara pushed her way back up the lovely pale body laid out beneath her, barely having time to press her lips to Lena’s, before she was being rolled onto her back and divested of her clothes.

She couldn’t help smiling as Lena kissed her way down her body, pulling off her t-shirt and working her boxer briefs down her legs. Everything that she had ever been through in her entire life was worth it, if it meant getting to this moment right here.

***

Dust motes swirled around them in the sunlit room as Kara nuzzled her nose into Lena’s neck, pulling her impossibly closer. She was in absolute heaven. Nothing celestial could compare to the way it felt to have Lena coming undone underneath her or the way it felt to have her nuzzling right back. She felt drunk on the feeling. Multiple orgasms could have that effect on a person.

Her warm thoughts were interrupted by her growling stomach, earning a quiet giggle from the agent. “Coffee and breakfast?” Kara suggested sheepishly.

Lena nodded slowly. She was absolutely debauched. “I think we’ve certainly worked up enough of an appetite.” She smirked, wrapping her arms around Kara’s neck and pulling her into a lazy kiss. “I need a shower. Why don’t you go get food and I’ll get cleaned up.”

Kara grinned mischievously. “Maybe I like it when you’re dirty.”

Lena laughed at her dorky lover and shoved her away. “Get out of here.” She pulled herself off the bed and traipsed to the bathroom, a halo of warm contentment surrounding her. “And be safe,” she added quickly. 

Kara gave her a two-finger salute and quickly dressed, stepping out the door, feeling higher than she had in months. They still hadn’t talked about Kara confessing her love, or what all this meant, but she was willing to take this as a good sign. They could talk about everything when they found the mole.

Whistling as she made her way to the lobby, she rounded the corner of the motel and found herself shoved against the wall with a gun pointed in her face. 

_ Hank. _

He shoved the barrel of his pistol right into her nostril, his grip tightening on her shirt.

“I--I have very sensitive sinuses,” was all Kara could think to say.

“Well nine millimeters of hot lead sure clear that right up, huh? Did you really think you could run away from me? Let’s go!”

He yanked Kara forward by her shirt and forced her back toward the motel room at gunpoint.

She stumbled along the path, trying to think of a way out. “Look, Lena had nothing to do with this, okay? What’s going to happen to her?”

Hank didn’t answer, just shoved her forward through the door to the room. Kara could hear the shower running in the bathroom, but the door was pulled closed. She considered shouting out to warn Lena, but Hank pointed his gun at her and directed her to be quiet. He crept toward the bathroom and pushed the door open slowly, inching past the open window toward the curtain.

He yanked it back, revealing an empty shower. He had only a second to be confused before Lena swung back in the open window and whacked him in the head with the toilet tank cover, breaking it in half with a grunt. 

He crumpled to the floor and Lena grabbed the gun out of his limp hand, before dragging him over to the radiator and handcuffing him to it.

“Come on, Kara. Let’s go!”

Kara inched past the dizzy and very angry Hank with quick apologies. They ran out to the car and Lena slid into the driver’s seat as a black SUV pulled up outside the motel. Kara’s gaze found the license plate and she began to flash.

“Oh! Oh god, Leviathan is here! They must have tracked Hank! We can’t leave him in there, they’re going to find him and torture him!”

Lena looked at her in exasperation. “No, Kara, don’t you get it? If we go back, he’s going to arrest us!”

Kara swallowed anxiously. “Yes, I know. But we can’t leave him.”

Lena sighed. “Fine. I’ll go get him, on ONE condition: you stay in the car!”

“Deal!”

Lena slammed the door and ran back to the motel room, around the back and through the bathroom window to avoid the Leviathan agents. Two more SUVs pulled up and the agents began spilling out of the vehicles.

“Shit.” Kara climbed over into the driver’s seat and gripped the wheel tightly, ready for anything. The passenger door flew open and Hank climbed in, radiator still attached to his wrist by his cuffs. He wedged himself and the radiator into the seat and slammed the door. 

“Going somewhere, Danvers?”

Kara stared at him in shock. How the hell had he managed to rip the whole damn heater off the wall? “No--no! We came back here for you because Leviathan is here!”

“Well then, we’d better get out of here.”

Kara stared him down. “I’m not leaving without Lena.”

“You drive or I end you.”

“End me? Oh yeah? How are you gonna do that, you don’t have a gun.”

Hank glared at her. “You think I can’t kill you with my thumb, or my elbow?” His glance dropped to the porcelain attached to his arm. “How about ‘nerd bludgeoned by radiator’?”

Kara shook her head. “You can’t kill me with that radiator. It is far too confined in this car for you to get the appropriate torque.”

“How about I strangle you with my handcuff chain,” he growled ferociously, baring his teeth.

Kara swallowed. “Yeah, that might work.”

Hank looked past her toward the motel. “Too late. They got her.”

Kara snapped her head back to the motel to see a group of Leviathan agents escorting Lena back to their vehicles. Her heart dropped.

“Let’s go,” Hank ordered.

Kara watched them and felt a feral rage take over her. “I told you,” she started, turning the key and putting the car into gear, “I’m not leaving without Lena.”

She jammed her foot on the gas and the car flew backwards toward the group of agents, barrelling them down like bowling pins. Lena jumped out of the way and took the distraction as an opportunity to knock out the two holding her.

Two of the agents she had hit with the car rose to their feet and began firing at the vehicle. Hank ordered her to duck as he climbed out of the car, blocking himself from their bullets with the radiator. One of the bullets struck the chain of the cuffs, freeing him. He rounded on the agents as their clips emptied and began bashing them in the face with the porcelain heater, back and forth between the two until they collapsed. 

Between the two agents, it was only a matter of time before the entire Leviathan team was down. Hank and Lena both reached for guns, pointing them at the other.

“Drop it!” Henshaw ordered.

“Can’t do that, Hank.”

“Guys!” Kara opened the door to the car and poked her body out, her foot still on the brake. “Let’s just--let’s just take a breather here and remember that we are a team!”

“Stay in the car!” Hank and Lena shouted at the same time.

“Technically I still have one foot in the car!”

They ignored her and continued to stare each other down, guns trained on the other.

“How far do you think you’re gonna get,” asked Hank.

“Until we find the mole and it’s safe for Kara to stay,” Lena replied.

A Leviathan agent stirred on the ground, trying to stand. The two agents turned and shot him at the same time, Lena’s gun clicking as it registered the empty clip.

“Uh-oh Luthor,” Hank grinned. “You’re out of ammo. It’s over.” He indicated to her to drop the gun. She complied.

“On the ground.”

She turned to Kara, apology written all over her face. Then she got down to her knees and let Hank place cuffs on her.

As they drove back to National City, cuffed to each other back to back, Kara was stricken with guilt. This was all her fault. She had done this. She had gotten Lena in so much trouble, had nearly gotten her killed.

“I’m so sorry, Lena,” she whispered. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Kara.” She stared pointedly at the back of Hank’s head. “You trusted somebody who you thought cared about you.”

Hank said nothing. Just kept driving in silence.

***

Kelly strode into the Nerd Herd with purpose. Something fishy was going on with Hank and Kara, and she was going to find out what. She searched the sales floor for Winn, but was found by Brainy and Nia instead.

“Hey guys, have you seen Kara? She never came home last night and then Hank came by looking for her--”

“Ah yes, Hank,” Nia interjected, “yeah I’m sure he did. Can’t live without his precious Kara.”

Kelly frowned, tilting her head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Nia leaned in close and whispered, “The guy is  _ obsessed _ with her. A classic perv.”

She crossed her arms over chest, growing more concerned by the minute. “Obsessed how?”

Brainy stepped closer to her. “You wanna see something  _ really  _ freaky?”

Kelly winced and nodded. With these two, she couldn’t be sure that the freaky thing would be at all related to Hank or Kara, but she went with her gut.

They led her to the break room and opened Kara’s locker, then pressed on the wall of the compartment revealing it to be a false barrier that led into Hank’s. Brainy reached in and grabbed a notebook. “Dude keeps a Kara diary. Bathroom visits  _ and  _ duration.”

Nia reached in and grabbed a ring of keys, all labelled to his apartment, Kara’s, the Nerd Herd, the Wienerlicious. She tossed them to Kelly who stared at the labels with growing panic. 

Brainy reached in and tossed a roll of duct tape to Nia, then pulled a glass bottle and a cloth out. “High grade chloroform.”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “Whoa. Do you guys think this has something to do with Kara being missing?”

Nia clapped her on the back. “I don’t know and I don’t care. But good luck!”

She placed all of Hanks’ things back in his locker and secured the false wall in place, before grabbing Brainy’s hand and leading him back out onto the sales floor, leaving a devastated Kelly in their wake.

Did this Henshaw guy have Kara chloroformed and tied up somewhere? Should she call the police? She stared down at the keys in her hands. It was time to get some answers.

***

The doors to the holding cell slid closed and Kara beat her fist against them. “Hank,  _ please! _ ”

He ignored her and hailed General Haley on the monitor, informing her of their capture.

“Excellent work,” she congratulated him. “A CIA team is on their way to take Agent Luthor and the Asset back to Langley.”

“General, what about the mole? If we can catch the mole, nothing has to change!” Lena’s voice was growing desperate but she didn’t care.

“We’re looking into it,  _ Ms. _ Luthor,” said Haley with disdain, placing emphasis on her lack of title. “In the meantime, enjoy your last few moments in National City, Colonel Henshaw.”

She signed off and Lena scoffed. “ _ Colonel _ Henshaw, huh?”

Kara quickly caught on. “Oh now I get it. Now I understand why you would betray your own team. For a promotion.”

Hank charged the glass and slammed his hand against it furiously. “I would  _ NEVER _ betray my team!  _ You  _ went AWOL.  _ You  _ betrayed  _ me! _ Don’t you forget that!”

He turned away slowly.

“So sorry,  _ Colonel, _ ” Kara mocked. “But congratulations on getting that chicken franchise you always wanted.”

“Oh yeah, keep talking Danvers--”

“Henshaw, stay on Haley, please. We need to find the mole and you know having the Intersect to help is the fastest way to find them. Please, it’s the only way to keep her safe.”

He stared at her, cold and unfeeling. “I will find the mole.” He turned to Kara. “And I’ll keep you safe. You have my word.” Then he walked away.

***

Kelly pulled the door to their apartment closed and slunk through the shadows toward Henshaw’s apartment. She was going to get to the bottom of this mess. If this Hank dude was stalking Kara or had her tied up somewhere, she would find her.

Sifting through the keys on the ring she had taken from his locker, she found the one marked ‘home’ and slid it into the lock, pushing the door open slowly. “Hank?” She called softly, trying to see if he was home. “It’s your neighbour, Kelly Olsen. The door was unlocked. You here?”

There was no answer. She pushed the door closed behind her and pressed further into the apartment. She stared around the room in shock. There were pictures of Kara all over the walls--surveillance pictures. An impressive computer setup with dual screens sat on his desk. Making her way over to the screens, she moved the mouse and the screen booted up, showing a surveillance feed of Kara’s bedroom.

“Oh my god!” This was so creepy. Moving the cursor to click on the next feed, an alarm began to blare and a metal gate dropped in the doorway of the living room, blocking her exit. “Shit!”

She was trapped in a creepy stalker’s Kara-shrine, with no way out.

***

Hank sat at the computer in The Tower, sifting through surveillance video from the Nerd Herd, when a notification popped up on the screen. An alarm had been tripped at his apartment. He pulled the feed up on the screen and saw Kelly pulling on the metal bars, trying to lift them.

He sighed. “I hate this whole family.”

Grabbing his pistol, he paused the surveillance video and ran out of the base.

***

Kara leaned against the wall and felt Lena drop her head onto her shoulder. It was just a matter of time before the CIA extraction team showed up, and she would never see Lena again. Her chest tightened and her eyes burned with unshed tears at the thought.

“You know, for whatever it’s worth, if I have to spend the rest of my days in a dark, windowless room, I can’t think of a better person to spend it with.”

Lena rolled her eyes and laughed lightly. “That’s not really how this works.”

Kara turned her head to look down into her eyes. “What, we can’t request a cozy little two bed, two bath cell?”

Lena was silent for a moment, staring up into her blue eyes, her own round and soft. “Two bed?”

Kara smiled softly and leaned toward her, desperate for one more kiss--

_ Zzzzt! _

The room went dark and the doors to their cell slid open. A disembodied electronic voice rang out. “ _ Electrical interruption. Auxiliary power activated.” _

It was another blackout, like the one that had shaken Kara the previous day. Lena pulled away and grabbed Kara’s hand. “Oh my god, quick! Before the power turns back on!” She yanked Kara forward and through the door, just as the generator booted up, the lights turned back on, and the monitors powered back on. 

Kara glanced at the screen Hank had been working on and saw Kelly trapped in Hank’s apartment. “Is that Kelly?”

She and Lena shared a look of horror before racing out of the base.

***

Kelly took in deep breaths, trying to calm herself as she waited for someone to arrive. If it was the police, she could explain the situation. If it was Hank…

The door to the apartment opened and Hank stepped inside, turning her blood cold. “Hey Kelly,” he said in a conversational tone, shutting off the alarm. 

She smiled as politely as she could, her nerves completely frayed. “Hey Hank! How ya doing?” Her voice cracked on the last word.

As the alarm shut off, the metal gate raised up and Henshaw stepped into the living room. Kelly was suddenly very aware of how large a man he was. This was not good. She tried to harness her therapist skills to gain the upper hand.

“What are you doing here?” He asked calmly.

She took a deep breath. “Look Hank, we need to talk.” She raised her hands in a non-threatening surrender motion. “I get it. You know, there was a time in my life that I didn’t have a lot going on either. Dead end job, no girl...”

“Really,” said Hank softly, moving closer toward her.

“Well...no, Hank, but this--” she turned and motioned toward the surveillance photos, “--this is not the answer. You need help, Hank. You need serious psychiatric help.  _ I _ can help you! Will you let me help you?”

Hank huffed out a laugh and withdrew his pistol and a silencer from his waistband, and began threading it onto the end. 

She began to back away in horror. “Whoa! Hank! What are you doing?! Put the gun down, Hank!”

Just as Hank tightened the suppressor, a beeping caught his attention. He turned to a monitor that displayed the message ‘Perimeter Breach’, followed by a surveillance feed shot of Kara and Lena racing toward the front of the apartment.

Kelly took advantage of his distraction and grabbed the nearest heavy item -- a small bust of some war general -- and threw it forcibly at his head. It connected with a sickening thud and she ran at him, tackling him like a linebacker. Even in his incapacitation, he threw her off easily but she martialed her military training and threw a cracking punch against his chin. 

His head flew back and he gripped his jaw, briefly impressed by her swing. “Not bad for a lady shrink.”

Then he was cracked over the head with a roundhouse kick by Lena, and he fell backward into his glass coffee table, shards of glass skittering across the floor. Lena grabbed his gun off the floor, training it on him.

“Don’t move!”

Kelly stared between the two of them. “What the--” She turned back to Lena, her eyes trained on the gun in her hand. “Lena?”

Kara came racing through the door behind her and took in the scene, her eyes wide with terror. 

Kelly looked at her in shock. “Kara?” She shook her head and gesticulated wildly. “What the hell is going on here?!”

Kara’s shoulders dropped. Her two worlds had just collided. 

“Kelly. Don’t freak out.”

She had always known this day would come, that one day her spy life would spill over into her regular life. She just had never thought it would happen quite like this, with her and Lena on the run from the government, Hank chasing them, and  _ Kelly  _ of all people figuring it out. She thought for sure it would be Alex. Kara had always thought she should have been a cop in another life. She had a nose for sniffing out trouble, which was a testament to how well Kara had gotten at lying, that she hadn’t caught on yet.

As Lena subdued Henshaw and cable-tied his wrists, Kara filled a glass with scotch and handed it to a trembling Kelly. 

“Kara, what do you mean 'don't freak out'? This is crazy! We have to call the police!”

“Kelly….we can’t do that. Drink the scotch, you’ll feel better.”

“He tried to kill me!! Why aren’t we calling the cops?!”

Kara broke at that. “Because I  _ am  _ the cops!”

“Kara!” Lena’s eyes went wide and her face spoke of barely contained shock and fury.

“Moron,” Hank murmured, his eyes also wide.

Kara turned back to her future sister-in-law and inhaled deeply. She had to tell her. That was the only way Kelly could understand. It had gone too far and gotten too big to contain. 

“Kelly, I am a high-level CIA asset and these are my handlers. For the last year, they have had to watch and protect my every move.”

She heard a strangled sound come from Lena’s direction. “Kara!  _ NO!” _

Kara turned to face her. “She can handle it!” She turned back to Kelly. “You can handle this, right? Tell me you can handle this.”

Kelly just stared at her in shock. “You’re being serious?”

Kara gave her a small smile.

Kelly turned to Lena. “She’s being serious?”

“Kelly," Kara placed her hands on Kelly’s shoulders, directing her attention back to herself. "I need you to help me. I need you to be cool about this. I need you to cover for me with Alex. I need you….to be  _ awesome _ . Can you be awesome?”

Kelly rubbed her face in shock and exasperation. “I--you’re a  _ spy _ , Kara?”

Kara tilted her head back and forth. “Yeah, more or less, yeah.”

“Whoa...this is…” she trailed off, looking completely rattled. Then slowly, a hint of recognition formed in her eye and she turned back to Kara with a wide grin. “... _ awesome! _ I knew you weren’t a loser who worked at the Nerd Herd!”

She high fived Kara.

“Well, you know, loser--loser is a little harsh,” said Kara self-consciously. “Okay, here’s the thing. The Nerd Herd is actually--it’s real. But here’s the most important thing, and I need you to do this for me right now, I need you to go home and handle Alex. Okay? That is your  _ mission _ . Can you do that?”

Kelly smiled wide and excitedly. “I’ve got your back.”

She pulled Kara into a hug and squeezed tightly before heading toward the door. “A  _ spy… _ ” she muttered ecstatically.

“Yeah, but let’s keep that on the down low,” Kara called after her. She prayed Kelly could handle things and keep it together. Right now, they had bigger fish to fry.

Turning back to Henshaw, Kara raised her hands. “Look Hank, I’m sorry about everything, okay? But we’ve really got to catch the mole. I’m not willing to spend the rest of my life in a padded box until I’ve exhausted every possible lead. So please...where are you on the mole?”

Hank stared at her with his lips pulled into a snarl, but said nothing. Kara scrunched up her face into a snarl. “Fine!” She turned to his computer and closed out of the surveillance cameras and linked it to The Tower’s system. 

Hank frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Oh now he wants to talk!” Kara exclaimed, typing furiously on the keyboard. “I’m tapping into the Tower’s system to see what you were last working on there.”

A few more keystrokes later, the Nerd Herd surveillance tapes popped up on the screen. “Boom!” She grinned at her success but then it dropped to a frown. “Wait, why were you looking through the Nerd Herd’s security footage?”

Rolling his eyes, he finally gave in. “The NSA swept the store and found over two dozen more bugs and a transmitter so they could listen remotely. I was going over the tapes to see if I could pick out anyone that had shown up repeatedly.”

Kara furrowed her brow staring at the tapes, fast forwarding through hours of customers, sales, and team shenanigans. Surely if a Leviathan agent had entered the store, she would have flashed on them, right? She had Leviathan programming in her brain after all. She watched the screen as Winn tried to flirt with the Noonan’s girl and her eyebrows raised slowly.

“How many bugs did you say you found?”

“Twenty-eight and a transmitter. Why?” Hank replied, puzzled.

Kara put her hands on her head as realisation dawned on her. 

_ “That’s 29 orders this month.” “One more and you get a free sticky bun!” _

“I know who it is! It’s the Noonan’s girl! She just started about a month ago and Winn---he’s been ordering it everyday. She said yesterday was his 29th order!” 

She turned between Lena and Hank. “Don’t you see? It adds up!”

Lena frowned. “But then why haven’t you flashed on her? If she was Leviathan, you’d have that information in your brain, right?”

“Not necessarily,” Hank cut in. “If she was a new agent or someone kept off the organisation’s books, so to speak, Kara wouldn’t have that knowledge. The CIA and NSA have had a theory that Leviathan has an underground faction somewhere, similar to Argo Heights, focused solely on rebuilding the Intersect.”

Lena stepped over to the computer and began typing, zeroing in on the delivery girl’s face and began running it through their database. Before a few minutes they had an answer. 

“Lyra Strayd,” Lena read off the screen. “Former CISA. Recruited from Stanford. Presumed dead. Last known mission was an underground security think tank, codenamed Black Rock.”

_ Black Rock. _ The words hit Kara’s ears with an echo as she began to flash. “Ho!!! I know where that is! It’s a CISA substation out in the desert. It used to be a cyber security outfit, but it was attacked by Leviathan a year ago. All the agents were presumed to have been killed in the attack.” She turned to Lena. “But what if they weren’t? What if Leviathan recruited some of them? What if they’re still using that facility?”

“They’d be underground. Cut off from the rest of the Leviathan network,” Hank responded, eyes wide. “We’ve never intercepted any communications from that facility. If anyone there knew your identity, it would be contained to that one outfit.”

“If we could get to the facility, infiltrate it, and erase any trace of Operation Intersect, maybe we could convince the General to let you stay out,” Lena finished hopefully.

Kara gave her a relieved and hopeful smile. 

Lena stepped around the desk and grabbed her hand. “Come on, we gotta go.”

“Don’t you leave me here, Danvers,” Hank growled, struggling with his bonds. “You walk out that door, you’re a dead woman.”

Kara paused in the doorway before looking back to him. “I don’t care.”

Then she strode out with confidence.

***

Hank struggled against the cable ties on his wrist. He wasn’t too keen on re-breaking his thumb, so he maneuvered his hands around to grab his cigar lighter off the floor, where it had fallen when he shattered the table. He positioned it under the plastic and clicked it on, feeling the flame singing his arm hairs as he held it in place.

The monitor blinked on and he clicked the lighter off.

“Agent Henshaw,” Haley greeted. 

“General,” he said, nodding. “I have an update. I believe the mole is holed up in a Leviathan substation in the desert, codenamed Black Rock.”

“Black Rock?” Haley frowned. “That site has been defunct for a year. Are you sure?”

“Yes ma’am. I’d like to request a thermal imaging scan to detect life forms at the site.”

“Granted. I’ll get that started.” She paused before signing off. “Any update on Ms. Luthor and the Asset?”

He paused for just a moment. “No ma’am.”

Haley signed off and he returned to the task of burning through his bonds. He could feel the flame burning his flesh, could smell it even, but his resolve was stronger. He had nearly melted the cable ties by the time Haley blinked back onto the screen.

“Colonel Henshaw, we have completed a thermal satellite scan of the coordinates, and activity was present. It seems Leviathan has moved their operation underground.”

_ Kara was right. _ “Are we sending in a team to shut them down?”

“We don’t have time for that. I’ve ordered a squadron of F-16s to annihilate the site.”

Hank paled. Kara and Lena were on their way there, if they had not already arrived. They had no idea the danger they were in. He had promised to keep them safe.

“General, we can’t! Kara and Lena have discovered the site and are already en route to capture the mole! You have to call off the strike!”

Haley took in a deep breath and considered his words.

“No,” she replied calmly.

“What?”

“I have not come to this decision lightly,” Haley responded casually. “But we have no other choice. We  _ must  _ wipe out Leviathan, no matter the cost.”

“But I gave them my word…” Hank whispered incredulously.

“I’m sorry, Colonel.” The screen blinked off without another word.

Hank worked at his bonds with renewed vigor. He had to get out. He had to get to Kara and Lena. 

Before it was too late.

***

Kelly filled up a glass of water at the sink, replaying the events of the night in her head. “Kara’s a spy,” she muttered. “Just be cool, even though Kara is a spy.” She could feel the panic growing. How was she supposed to keep this from Alex?

The door opened and Alex strode in, her scrubs rumpled and her hair a mess. Clearly, she had had a long day at the hospital. Kelly drained her glass and stared at her reflection in the kitchen window. “Just stay cool,” she muttered.

“Hey babe,” Alex called, toeing off her shoes. “Did you learn anything about Kara at the Nerd Herd?”

Kelly turned around and faced her fiancée. “Um...huh?”

Alex cocked her head. “Kara? She’s supposed to be helping with wedding planning…” 

Kelly said nothing. The only words she wanted to say were situated right in her throat like bad shrimp and she knew if she opened her mouth, they’d come spilling out.

Alex wrinkled her brow and looked at her in confusion. “Honey, why are you just staring at me like that? It’s a really simple question. Have you talked to Kara?”

Kelly took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest. She could do this. She shook her head and prepared herself to say she hadn’t spoken to Kara. But that’s not what came out. “Yeah!”

Her eyes widened. “I mean, no! I mean, um….” She puffed out her cheeks. “I mean, she’s fine!”

Alex furrowed her brow. “So you spoke to her?”

Kelly worked her jaw, her mouth opening and closing. “No! Definitely not!” She began to laugh hysterically.

Alex shook her head in confusion. “Did someone else speak to her? Hank?”

Kelly shook her head and gave a noncommittal noise.

Alex stared at her. “Lena?”

“Who?”

Alex’s eyes widened. “Oh no. Oh honey, no no no. You can’t do this to me! I need you to focus, okay? No cold feet wedding jitters right now, alright? My sister is missing and we have six million wedding-related decisions to make, so I just need you to pull it together, okay? Can you do that? Can you be  _ awesome _ for me?!”

Kelly gave a weak laugh and a nod. She could do this. She could be awesome for everyone. No sweat. 

“I need your A-game, baby! We’ve got wedding cakes to taste tomorrow!”

Kelly smiled weakly and turned around to refill her glass with water. Kara needed to hurry up and get back, or she was sure she was going to crack under the strain.

***

Lena stopped the car outside the entrance to an old abandoned drive-in movie theater. “This is the site?” She asked skeptically.

“According to the coordinates in my flash, this is the site of the Black Rock facility,” Kara confirmed. “So, what’s the plan?”

Lena reached behind her and pulled extra magazines from a bag on the seat, sliding them into the pocket of her leather jacket. “The plan,” she began, checking the clip in her pistol, “is I go in, locate their server, delete any trace of you or Operation Intersect from their files, plant explosives to destroy the compound, and shoot anyone who gets in my way.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “O-Okay, but what do I do?”

Lena turned to look at her, eyes hard and full of fire. “You stay in the car.”

Kara felt a wave of fear and disappointment wash over her. “Lena, I am not going to let you go in there alone! It could be crawling with Leviathan agents! Besides, no one knows computers better than me, and I can work twice as fast to wipe their systems while you plant bombs. You need me!”

Lena paused, considering her words. “Fine. But you stay close to me. Do  _ not _ leave my sight. Do I make myself clear?”

She nodded quickly. “Yeah, totally, crystal.”

“Then let’s go.”

Throwing open the car door, they made their way along the outer rim of the parking area, sticking to the treeline. Kara knew the base was underground, with a secret entrance, but she was a bit fuzzy on exactly what the entrance was. 

As if reading her mind, Lena pointed toward a decrepit children’s playground on the other side of the field. “There.” She began moving toward the playground.

“Um, not to be a negative Nancy here, but I really don’t know if now is the time for see-saw rides,” Kara whispered, clinging to the back of Lena’s jacket as they approached the playground.

Lena looked back and rolled her eyes before moving toward a small pony attached to a spring. She examined it for a moment before pulling on the handles. A hatch in the concrete under it opened up, revealing a steel ladder leading to the depths below.

Kara gawked at the hole in the ground and then turned to see the smug look on Lena’s face. “How did you know that was there?”

Lena shoved her gun into her waistband, stepping down onto the ladder. “CIA 101. No one thinks to look for dangerous shit where children play.”

Kara grimaced. “Well, that’s...yikes.”

“Yeah.”

They dropped down silently into the concrete catacombs below the ground, keeping to the shadows and avoiding agents. Lena pulled her gun from her waistband and attached a suppressor as they followed the labyrinth-like tunnels around the base, in search of the server room. 

Kara’s heart beat dangerously fast in her chest. They had literally climbed into the snake pit of their own free will. And she had insisted on joining! What the hell was wrong with her? Her hand began to cramp around the leather material of Lena’s jacket from gripping it so hard, her knuckles white from the effort.

As if sensing her turmoil, Lena shoved her back into an alcove and put a hand over her mouth as two agents passed by their location. When the coast was clear, she removed her hand and placed both palms on either side of Kara’s cheeks. “Hey, you okay?”

Kara swallowed and searched Lena’s concerned eyes before nodding. She could do this. She nodded one more time, more certainly, and pushed off the wall. Lena nodded in return and checked to make sure the coast was clear before setting off. Kara continued behind her until she saw a sign on a door marked “SCI-Level Two Clearance Only” and began to flash. This was the server room!

She tapped Lena’s back and silently pointed her to the room. Pressing herself against the wall, the agent reached out and tried the handle. It was locked. She motioned for Kara to back away and shot the locking mechanism, the silenced bullet tinging as it hit the metal of the door. Lena forced the door open and stepped inside, gun raised. 

From her right an agent leapt from his chair, pulling his gun from its holster, Lena fired without a thought, her bullet burying itself right between his eyes, the spray of his blood misting all over the freon-cooled casings that housed their servers.

Kara stared in horror at the sight before her and felt bile rise up in her throat. Lena turned to her and pulled her close, whispering things into her hair that were drowned out by the pounding of her heartbeat and the dull roar of her own thoughts.

“Kara? Kara!” Lena was saying her name. 

She snapped out of her shock, shaking her head to clear it. 

“Are you okay?” 

She swallowed hesitantly, then nodded. “Yeah I’m--I’m fine. Just...don’t really think I’ll ever get used to the whole ‘killing people’ thing.”

Lena frowned sympathetically. “I hope you never do. I’m sorry about that. But we really need to move, and you said you could do the computer part faster so…” she motioned to the desk the dead agent had just vacated.

“Right. Right! I’m on it.” She stepped around the corpse and sat down, cracking her knuckles, and began to type. 

Screens flew up and away as her fingers scrabbled over the keys, searching and erasing all traces of her own identity, Lena’s, Hank’s, and any intelligence relating to Operation Intersect. A piece of intel regarding a ‘cube’ had just popped up on screen that piqued her interest when the door to the server room flew open and Hank stepped into the room.

Lena raised her gun and pointed it at her former partner, his own weapon trained on her, and Kara stood up, watching the stand off with wide eyes.

“Drop it, Luthor,” he ordered quietly.

“You drop it,” she spat back.

“Lena, don’t!” Kara said forcefully, glaring at Henshaw. “We’ve come this far. If he wants to stop us, he’s going to have to kill us.”

“Haley called in an airstrike. It’ll be here in less than twenty minutes,” Hank replied calmly, keeping his gun pointed at Lena.

“What?!” Kara yelped. “We--but--she has to call it off! We’re down here!”

“That doesn’t matter to her anymore. She ordered me to bring you in, dead or alive.”

Kara paled. So that was all she was? All Lena was? Expendable pawns to be sacrificed when they became too annoying or erratic?

“I guess I have a lot to learn,” she muttered dejectedly.

“Yeah you do,” Hank growled back. “You made three crucial mistakes. You left the hatch open to the base,” he turned back to Lena, “you didn’t bring nearly enough firepower,” he turned back to Kara and dropped his gun, “and you didn’t ask me to join!”

Kara stared at him in confusion. “Hank?” He said nothing, just stood stoically. “Would...would you like to help me clear my name and destroy the secret bad people base?”

“I think you have served our country honorably and deserve a chance to live a life outside of a hole in the ground,” Hank snarled. 

“Is that a yes?” Lena asked, a befuddled expression on her face.

Hank broke out into a rare, soft smile. “It’s a yes. Let’s go.”

The two agents moved toward the door but Kara stopped them. “Wait--wait! I’ve just about finished erasing everything regarding the Intersect but...I found something here.”

Lena moved around the desk to stand beside her, Hank following. “What is it?” she asked.

“I’m not sure--not entirely,” she answered. “But based on these lines of code, I think...I think Leviathan may have successfully built their own Intersect.”

A slow clap from the doorway started up and all three agents snapped their heads up toward the sound. Lyra stepped through the door, continuing to clap. “Oh brava. You figured it out.” 

Hank and Lena both raised their guns, but a group of heavily armed Leviathan agents stepped through the door and ordered them to drop their weapons.

Lyra stepped further into the room and smiled viciously. “The gang’s all here! Thanks so much for stopping by. Saves me the trouble of having to hunt you down once the Intersect goes live.”

They were outmanned and outgunned. And an airstrike was on its way. Things were not looking great for Team Danvers.

***

The agents shuffled them into another room, this time a room with only one computer and covered in monitors. Lyra strode ahead of them, turning and outstretching her arms to present it. “What do you think?”

Kara looked around. This must be the Intersect room. She zeroed in on the computer. She could see what had been described in the files she saw as the ‘Intersect cube’ humming next to the computer. It looked a bit like the Tesseract from the Avengers’ movie. That was what made the whole thing work. If she could get close enough to destroy it, this whole thing would be over. She had deleted all of their Intersect related files. They would have to start from scratch.

Lyra frowned. “Really? No response? We’re building the future here! Agents more capable than any computer, more efficient than any spy in history, more deadly than any drone. Surely you must be able to appreciate that!”

When the trio said nothing, the woman sighed. “Everyone's a cynic. Oh well!” She motioned to the guards. “Take them out and kill them.” She turned to leave. 

Just then an explosion hit a part of the facility and rocked the entire base. Haley’s airstrike had arrived. The ground shook and everyone fell to their knees. Hank recovered first and wrestled the gun away from his captor, knocking him out with it. Lena was next on her feet, landing a hard kick right to the temple of the agent holding her. As the two agents fought the team of Leviathan agents on shaky ground, Kara crawled across the floor toward the computer. 

She hit the floor as a gunshot went off, but didn’t stop to see if it was a friend or foe behind the gun. Upon reaching the computer, she began to undo the cables attaching the Intersect cube to the computer.

“Kara, come on! We’ve gotta go!” Lena shouted, racing toward her as another explosion rocked the base. Kara’s fingers flew across the cables, yanking them out without care. She gathered the cube into her arms and held it tight like a football, leaping over a fallen agent, until she reached Lena, who grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room, Hank leading the way.

As they raced down the shaking corridor, chunks of concrete and sifted sand began to fall in their path. Kara pumped her legs, urging them to go faster. She would not die underground in an enemy bunker. This was not how her story would end.

They reached the base of the hatch and Hank shoved her and Lena forward up the ladder, following closely behind. As she reached the surface, Kara turned and pulled Lena out. Hank pulled himself up and onto the grass, standing quickly and pushing them all towards the car. They piled into Lena’s Jaguar and she floored it, putting the old drive-in in their rearview, just as the bombers circled around for their third wave, the explosions thrusting the vehicle forward. Lena kept a tight grip on the wheel as they sped off into the night, back to National City, with the Intersect cube tucked safely in Kara’s arms.

***

“Colonel Henshaw, am I to understand that you rescued Ms. Danvers, recovered the Intersect cube, and destroyed Leviathan’s operation base?”

The three of them were standing in The Tower in front of the monitor, briefing General Haley on the details of the mission. 

“That’s correct,” Henshaw grunted.   
  
“Perhaps I should be promoting you to  _ General  _ Henshaw,” Haley replied, flabbergasted.

Hank smirked and inhaled deeply, glancing back at Kara and Lena before speaking again. “Actually, Agent Luthor is the one responsible for the success of the mission. She pretended to go AWOL. Used herself and the asset as bait to lure Leviathan out so we could secure their location. She risked her life to preserve the integrity of the mission. If anyone deserves a commendation, it’s Luthor.”

Kara felt a wide grin growing across her face. Hank was covering for Lena. This was great. Lena wouldn’t go to jail, and now that Black Rock and the Intersect plans were destroyed, Kara could stay out in the world. She felt a whooping laugh brewing in her chest that was threatening to break out when she heard a small voice to her left pipe up.

“Actually General, I never--” 

No. Kara was not going to let her take the blame for this. She didn’t deserve it, and she was not going to let Lena talk her way back into a court martial or whatever CIA agents got.

“--Never thought she could be so cold!” She interjected swiftly. “I mean, I didn’t, certainly. She used me as bait! Just like Hank just said! I was treated terribly, you know. She cuffed me. I--I had chafing on my wrists. I was malnourished. It was--it was…” she trailed off, glancing over at Lena, who was giving her a soft smirk, eyes full of mirthful gratitude. “It was horrific.” She winked at the agent.

Hank stomped on her foot to make her shut up. 

“Ow!”

Haley frowned, but the corner of her lip quirked up. “Well then, Colonel Henshaw,  _ whatever _ happened, congratulations on a job well done. The government will take possession of the Intersect cube. That will no longer be your concern. Your teams’ sole mission is locating Leviathan and excising them from the United States’ government. And I’ve brought in someone who I think can help you.”

The door to the Tower whooshed open and a tall tan man with handsome features and a chiseled jawline strode confidently into the base, stopping short of the monitors. 

“Agent Henshaw, Agent Luthor, Ms. Danvers, meet the newest member of your team: William Dey. He is our foremost expert on Leviathan and will be assisting you going forward. Good to see you, Agent Dey.”

The man smiled up at the monitors. “Good to see you as well, General.” He spoke with a thick British accent.

The new arrival turned to the group and smiled at them, and Kara couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes lingered on Lena, trailing over her face and down her body. 

He hadn’t been in the room for more than five minutes and already Kara was ready to hurl him into the sun.

“Shall we get to work then?”

Kara frowned. This was not going to end well.

***

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhhh!!! Feelings! Sexy times! Kelly knows the secret! A new team member!
> 
> How will this change Supercorp's dynamic?  
> Can Kelly keep the secret?  
> What's William's deal?
> 
> Find out next week!!
> 
> Please drop a comment and let me know how you liked this chapter! This is only my second time writing smut so please forgive me if it's not terrific 😬😬 Thank you so much for continuing to read!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent Dey is introduced to the team. Kara tries to deal with the fallout of her last mission. Leviathan makes a bold move.
> 
> Tw// death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE'RE BACK BITCHESSSS!!!
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> I want to thank everyone for being so patient over this hiatus, while I gathered my thoughts and figured out where tf I wanted to go with this. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint. We're about to kick things into a higher gear!
> 
> Shorter chapter this time because I had to split this one and the next one, otherwise it would have been like 17k words lol
> 
> Also, the tags have been updated a smidge.

“I’d like to introduce you all to CIA Special Agent William Dey,” Haley stated from the monitor. The agent in question turned to face the group with a tight smile. 

Kara didn’t think he looked so special. Handsome, yes. Sickeningly so, but not special.

“For the last five years, Special Agent Dey has worked on nothing but taking out Leviathan. From this point on, Agent Dey has total command authority on any mission having anything to do with Leviathan.”

Agent Dey turned back to the monitor. “Thank you, General.” He glanced back at the group. “If you guys don’t mind, I need to receive my solo briefing now.”

The trio exchanged looks between them, then shuffled out of the room, leaving Agent Dey alone with the General. 

“I have back issues of Guns & Ammo magazine that are older than him,” Hank growled. “How is he supposed to lead this team?”

He stalked off in search of a drink. Kara turned to Lena, brow furrowed. “He’s not really going to be in charge, is he?”

Lena shrugged. “It sure looks that way. But don’t worry about him, I’m sure he’s a great agent. Haley wouldn’t have put him with us if he wasn’t.”

She turned to walk away, but Kara caught her by her elbow gently. “Hey, hey, um...I was wondering if maybe you wanted to do something tonight? We could--we could get dinner? Or have a movie night? Or--or, you know, we could actually...talk? You know, about everything…?”

She smiled hopefully at the agent. Things had happened so fast today that she barely registered the fact that the mindblowing sex had happened just that morning. Now it was time to see if that was all it was, if that was all Lena wanted it to be. Kara swallowed hard, anxiously awaiting Lena’s reply. 

Lena’s eyes softened and a small but genuine smile crept over her lips. “Yeah, I’d--I’d really like that.” She cleared her throat and looked down at the floor. “I think it’s important that we talk about...everything.”

Kara smiled brightly. “Cool, so...pizza and potstickers at my place? I can place an order so it’ll be there by the time we get out of here.”

She pulled out her phone just as Agent Dey stalked into the room. “If you guys wouldn’t mind joining me, we have a lot to cover tonight.”

Kara’s heart sank in disappointment. Well, there went her evening with Lena. Looking over to the female agent, she saw a similar look of disappointment on her features before she schooled them into an impassive face as Hank rejoined the group. 

William extended a hand to Lena and smiled confidently. “Agent Luthor, it really is a pleasure to be working with you. I’ve heard great things.”

Lena took his hand and shook it with a polite smile. “I can’t say I’ve heard of you, but I’m sure Haley wouldn’t have put you here if you weren’t competent.”

He grinned and let go of her hand, turning to lead them back into the command center where he directed them to sit down at the table.

“Now, you should all know that I have been fully briefed on the details of the Intersect.” At their surprised gazes, he added, “That’s right. I know everything.” He pulled out three thick packets and slid them down the table. “As Haley said, for the past five years, hunting Leviathan has been my only job, and I am now the lead agent on the taskforce to that end. Here’s an overview on current Leviathan intel.”

Kara frowned. “I thought James Olsen was the lead agent on Leviathan.” 

“James has been...reassigned,” William replied cryptically. 

Kara and Lena exchanged confused frowns. Where had James been reassigned? Was he okay?

“Now, I want everyone up to speed on this intel. Read through the packets, and learn it all. No one goes home until we’re all on the same page.”

With that, he left the room, leaving them to read hundreds of pages of briefing materials after an already exhausting day. In Kara’s opinion, it didn’t matter how good of an agent he was, he was not making a good first impression with their tight-knit team, and she worried how his militant style would change their dynamic.

Sighing loudly, she opened the briefing packet and began to read, the words shifting around the page under her tired eyes. It was going to be a long night.

***

Days passed in the same fashion that the first night had gone. It seemed that Agent Dey had an endless supply of intel and briefings to supply the team with, and Kara had to hand it to him, he really did know the ins and outs of the rogue group. 

But his briefings always seemed to come at the worst moments. Three nights in a row Kara and Lena had attempted to make plans with each other, and three nights in a row they had spent their evenings down in The Tower, hunkered over files of Leviathan agents and screens showing the blueprints of their known locations, listening to Agent Dey prattle on about terrorist cells and networks of assassins. 

Home life wasn’t much better.

Somehow Kelly had managed not to spill everything to Alex, but she hadn’t exactly covered for her either, leaving Kara trying to come up with an excuse on the spot for why she had disappeared the past weekend. 

Lena had taken the blame for her, citing some difficult family thing that she needed Kara’s support for. (Kara had not missed the discomfort that had radiated off of Lena when she spoke of her family. Somehow she thought that perhaps her lie about family difficulties wasn’t that far from the truth.)

But however subtle Kelly might have been with Alex, she was anything but around the trio of agents. She had taken to saluting to and winking at Kara around the apartment. And when Alex sent her out to pick up snacks for game night, she had made a pointed joke to Kara about “accepting her mission”. Kara had groaned inwardly at that one. 

She was terrified that Alex was going to figure it all out, or at least become curious enough to start asking questions that she wasn’t going to be able to ignore or talk her way out of. Alex was usually a bloodhound with these kinds of things, and if Kelly kept being so obvious, her sister was sure to start picking up on things.

The thing that worried her most was Alex’s safety. All her time with Operation Intersect had shown her that anyone who knew about her was in danger. If anything happened to Alex or Kelly because of her...well, that was a thought she couldn’t even entertain. But even more than that, she wondered if Alex would approve of what she was doing. Sure, her sister had always insisted that she was meant for more than the Nerd Herd, but was being a CIA-backed supercomputer pseudo-secret agent what she had in mind? Would she disapprove? Would she be proud of her -- proud of all she had accomplished? All of this weighed heavily on Kara’s heart. Alex had already lost so much -- they both had. Losing both of their parents had taken a toll on Alex, as she had had to step up and be the parent for both of them. Would the fear of losing Kara be stronger than her pride in Kara’s newfound abilities? 

Luckily, between rotations at the hospital and wedding planning, Alex didn't seem to have much time to be interested in Kara’s disappearances or Kelly’s odd behaviour. The venue that they wanted to be married at didn't have an opening for another nine months, which was longer than they had anticipated and Alex had been trying to call in every favour she had to try to get a closer booking, to no avail. Needless to say, she wasn't all that concerned with how Kara was spending her days. 

In Kara’s opinion, it was better if Alex just never knew. If Kara could finish her time with the CIA and go back to her normal life and pretend that this whole thing was a fever dream that Alex never needed to find out about, that would be ideal. Though now, with Kelly in the loop, that outcome was looking less and less likely. She was going to find out at some point. Kara just hoped she’d be ready for it when she did.

***

Kara spotted Hank at the loading docks of the Nerd Herd and pulled him aside. “Hey Hank, have we got any more intel on you-know-who down in The Tower?”

“William?” He asked in confusion.

“Yeah, William!”

“I’m busy here, Kara,” he grunted, starting to unload a truck. “Why don’t you ask him yourself? He’s living down there.”

Kara stared at him blankly. “He’s living in The Tower? What? Why?”

Hank didn’t answer and continued to unload the truck. Kara felt frustration burn in her chest. “Hank, what is going on?! Is he really in charge of our team?”

Hank turned to her, sighing, resigned to having this conversation with her. “Dey is a Special Agent with the CIA. He can pretty much do whatever he wants.”

Kara frowned. “Even more special than me?”

Hank ignored her. “It gets worse. Whenever a Special Agent takes over an operation, they conduct a review. Lena’s in there with him right now.”

Kara paled, a wave of nausea rising in her gut. She didn’t like the thought of William being alone with Lena. She saw how he looked at her. She swallowed harshly. “What do you think they’re talking about?”

“You, numbnuts,” said Hank rolling his eyes. “How you function as the Intersect. How we work as a team. That kind of stuff.”

Kara shook her head incredulously. “Wait, the review is about _me_ ? Shouldn’t Dey be asking _me_ about me?”

Hank huffed out a grunt as he moved a particularly heavy box. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Kara sighed, stepping in front of him. “Look, I am never going to be able to escape this ridiculous cover if William thinks I’m some kind of moron civilian who just got lucky enough to get a computer dumped in her head!”

Hank furrowed his brow. “But that’s exactly what happened.”

Kara threw her head back and groaned. Hank’s phone dinged and he dropped what he was doing. She perked up at the movement and stepped back in front of him, blocking his path. “Hey! Hey, is that William?” Hank let out a low grunt that bordered on a growl at the intrusion. “Just--just listen. Remember: I am an integral member of this team. My voice should be heard!”

“Oh don’t worry,” Hank replied with a grin, “your prepubescent little girl screams are going to be duly noted. Actually, right now. He wants to see you.”

***

“Is Kara Danvers a real spy?” 

Lena sat across from Agent Dey in The Tower, keeping her face as impassive as possible. She hated reviews, and she didn’t particularly like Agent Dey, or the way he was asking questions about Kara. He had now kept them apart for three days with his incessant briefings, and now he was insinuating, after everything Kara had done for this country, that she wasn’t a real agent.

“Yes, of course she is.”

William raised a brow in her direction and wrote something down on his notepad. Lena shifted uncomfortably.

“I mean, her training has been...irregular and unorthodox, and she was a civilian only two years ago, but--”

“Yeah well, these mission reports tell a different story,” William cut in, not looking up at her. “Sometimes she sounds like James Bond and other times she sounds like Mr. Bean.”

Her lips quirked up minutely as she worked to suppress a snort. He kind of had a point. 

“Agent Luthor,” he looked up calmly, gazing into her eyes, “I need to know: Is Kara a liability?”

Before she could answer, the doors to The Tower whooshed open and Kara stepped through, looking like she was terrified but trying to exude confidence. Lena covered her mouth with her fist and suppressed a smile as she watched her exaggerate her stalk down the stairs. It tickled her to think about how this anxious ball of nerves was such a powerhouse in bed. She still hadn’t gotten a chance to tell the blonde how she felt, but she had spent the last three nights coming all over her hand at the memory of being pinned to the sheets by this computer geek, the thought of strong arms and abs and soft praise being whispered into her ear buoying her as she rode out her orgasms. 

She blushed lightly at the thought. There was no doubt in her mind that she was in love with Kara, and if they could only get a moment alone, she was ready to tell her. But first they had to deal with the matter at hand.

Hank followed Kara down the stairs, and the pair joined them at the table. They sat in silence as William continued to make notes on his pad. Kara fidgeted with her glasses, and Lena could hear her leg bouncing anxiously on the chair. She wanted to reach out and touch her, to reassure her that she had nothing to worry about, but the last thing she needed was for William to get a whiff of impropriety and report it to General Haley. If the nature of their relationship was discovered, she would surely be reassigned and never see Kara again.

“Look, Agent Dey--”

“William is fine,” William cut in.

“ _William,_ ” Kara huffed in annoyance, “I’m sure that things have been said about either myself or my abilities as a spy, and while I concede that there are more traditional and more professional spies out there--”

“Kara,” he interrupted calmly, “this is my meeting.” He closed his notebook and stood up.

“Right, sorry. Please continue.” She leaned back in her chair dejectedly.

“I think we can all agree that this team has been dysfunctional since its inception. And I think I know what the problem is.”

Kara shrunk back in her chair. This was it. She was going to get kicked off the team or sent to Washington to live in some medicated think tank. 

“The problem…is them,” he continued, pointing to Hank and Lena.

“What?” Lena asked incredulously, glaring up at him. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s a moron,” Hank muttered.

“Kara,” William continued, ignoring the two of them. “They coddle you. You could be a great spy, but they won’t let you evolve. With the Intersect cube back in the government’s hands, and ready to create new Intersect agents out of _actual_ spies, you’ll be obsolete. It’s time for you to move into the next phase of training.”

Kara stared at him in shock, a crinkle appearing on her brow. “Really?” She looked over to Lena, who looked doubtful. “I mean, yes! Yes! He’s right. Let me be a spy! Let me out of the car, I’m ready!”

“No, William, she’s not,” Lena replied, not looking at Kara. 

“Duly noted -- and ignored,” Dey replied. He turned back to Kara. “Kara, starting first thing tomorrow, you’re going to begin field training. It’s time for you to become a real spy. Are you ready?”

Kara gaped at him openmouthed. She looked at Hank, who snorted at Dey’s words, then to Lena, who looked worried and doubtful. She felt an oppositional defiance kick in, wanting to prove her wrong, to show her that she could be a great spy, and she turned back to William, determination glinting like steel in her eyes and her voice as she spoke. 

“Absolutely.”

William nodded curtly. “Good. Then take the night off, rest up, and be ready tomorrow morning.”

***

Finally, the two of them were getting some time alone, but things weren’t going the way Kara had hoped. The coffee table was littered with empty pizza boxes and Lena was curled up on the couch next to her, but the conversation was anything but what she wanted to be talking about.

“Look, Kara,” Lena was saying, holding the bridge of her nose, “I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Training is--it’s a lot. You’re going to learn to do things that no person ever should. You--you won’t be the same person when you’re done.”

Kara sighed, not wanting to fight with her. “I get it, I really do. I know you’re just trying to look out for me, but...this is my shot, you know? And anyway, it’s not like I’m going to learn a bunch of skills overnight. It’s all going to take time, and you’ll be there to help me, right? To keep me tethered to myself?” 

She reached out and held Lena’s hand gently, gazing into her eyes. “As long as I have you, nothing bad will happen.”

Lena softened visibly at her words and she moved closer to the blonde on the couch.

Kara smiled and scooted closer. “And besides, once I’m all trained up, you won’t have to babysit me anymore.” She chuckled self-deprecatingly. “You can get back to saving the world.” She looked into Lena’s haunting gaze, hoping that Lena didn’t think her words were the joke she made them out to be.

Lena never broke eye contact, her eyes soft and round. “Kara, I don’t want to save the world,” she whispered, leaning in closer, their breath mixing in the stillness between them. “I want--” 

Her next words were cut off by a pounding on the front door. Kara frowned and rose to answer it, ready to punch whoever it was that interrupted their moment.

It was William, looking disheveled. He looked past Kara to Lena. “Agent Luthor, there’s been an attack at the Intersect building. It’s Leviathan. We have to go!”

The two women exchanged looks before dashing out of the apartment, and over to Hank’s to grab him before racing off into the night.

***

“What is going on?” Kara asked as they flew through the streets of National City.

“The new Intersect was supposed to go live tonight,” William explained as Hank weaved the SUV in and out of traffic. “I received a distress call from one of the agents at the facility. One of the agents responsible for the attack is a member of Leviathan. They’re going to steal the Intersect cube back for themselves and upload it into their team. We have to stop them!”

They skidded to a stop outside a drab office building in Midtown. The three agents grabbed guns out of the trunk and darted up to the entrance, Kara hot on their heels. It spoke to the urgency of the moment that none of the agents had the presence of mind to order her to stay in the car. 

As soon as they stepped inside the building, Kara knew something was wrong. A red alarm light was flashing, painting the room in blood red intermittently. Three agents lay dead at the security desk just inside the door. 

They stepped through the metal detectors, each body causing a shrill beeping as their guns were registered. Kara glanced up to a map of the building on the wall and began to flash, the blueprints to the location appearing before her eyes.

She gasped at the sensation. It didn’t matter how many times it happened, it still left her breathless.

William led the pack. “Heads up, guys,” he ordered, stepping forward. “We have to find the Intersect room.”

Kara ran forward. “Down that hall and to the left!”

Everyone turned to look at her in surprise. 

“Intersect, duh!” She replied, pointing to her head. 

William nodded and urged them forward, their guns raised and ready for anything.

As they rounded the corner before the hallway that led to the Intersect room, William stopped them with a hand signal, peering around the corner. Several Leviathan agents lay in wait outside the Intersect room, trying to decrypt the code for the door. One of the agents spotted Dey and began firing.

William ducked back around the corner, avoiding the ricocheting bullets. The firing died down and then all three agents ducked down and began firing on the rogue members. 

Kara’s head was ringing from all the gunshots. More Leviathan agents appeared down the hallway. They were outmanned and outgunned, pinned down in this godforsaken hallway.

Lena turned suddenly, tossing an empty clip and slamming another one into her pistol. “Kara! Get out of here! Go get help! Call Haley!”

Kara nodded and pushed off the wall, sprinting back down the way they came. She passed an air duct and skidded to a halt, remembering the blueprints from her flash. This air duct led into the vault that housed the Intersect. If she could get in there, she could shut down the Intersect and then, even if the Leviathan agents got in, they wouldn’t be able to upload it. Then she could call Haley.

She pulled a chair out of a nearby office and stood on it, opening the air hatch and pulling herself up into the duct. Scrabbling along the corridor, she quickly made her way through the air system, her arms screaming with the effort of pulling herself through the small space. She tried to ignore the wave of claustrophobia that threatened to overcome her, and soon she was directly over the vault.

Pushing open the hatch, she looked down at the floor. She had never been good at this part. Dangling her feet out of the hatch, she dropped to the floor, her legs collapsing under her as she slammed down onto her back.

She groaned, pushing herself up. 

“Kara?” 

A deep voice to her left made her jump. Turning quickly, she gasped at the sight. 

_James._

He was slumped against the wall of the vault, sweaty and breathing heavy.

“James?!” She exclaimed in shock. “Wh--what are you doing here? I thought you were off fighting Leviathan.” 

Then she remembered William’s cryptic words. “Wait...William said you were reassigned.”

James nodded, “I’m supposed to be the new Intersect. The CIA sent me here tonight to upload it, but one of the agents who escorted me was Leviathan. He ambushed me.”

Kara felt her brain stutter to a halt, trying to process all of this new information. James was going to become an Intersect? She shook her head. That wasn’t important. Her team was in trouble. James would be able to help.

“Right. Well, Hank, William, and Lena are outside, okay? They’re pinned down and they need help!”

James nodded. “I’m on it.” He tried to push himself up but groaned and slumped back down, his jacket falling open, revealing a gunshot wound in his abdomen.

“Oh my God, James! Oh my God, you’re shot!”

He grimaced and panted. “Yeah.” He clutched his stomach in pain. “I’m sorry about this, Kara.”

“No...no it’s okay,” Kara said, panic clear in her voice as she tried to reassure him. “It’s okay, you’re gonna be fine. It’s not that bad!”

James looked at her with clear skepticism. “Take care of her.”

“No! Don’t! Don’t do that. You’re not dying! Just hold on, okay?”

James winced and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a disk. His bloody hands stained it red as he passed it over to Kara, his breaths quick and shallow. 

“This will destroy the Intersect. This new computer--it’s too powerful. They made changes--to the data architecture…” He was struggling to get his words out now. “It’s too--too dangerous. You have---you have to destroy it. Leviathan--they’ll use it against us, Kara.”

Tears filled her eyes as she took the disk from him with shaking hands. 

“You have to destroy that computer, Kara. And then g-get out of here.” 

His breathing became shallow and slow, his head lolling to the side as he took his final breaths. Kara could feel her hot tears streaming down her face as she witnessed the final moments of the man who had once been her best friend. The man who had changed her life in so many ways. 

James Olsen was dead. And this time there was no faking it. This time he would stay that way.

“James?” She whispered softly. “Oh my god, James.” A choked sob escaped her as she clutched the disk tightly in her hand. She glanced down at the bloodstained bit of plastic and then back up to her deceased friend and felt a wave of anger and pain overcome her. Leviathan had killed James. She would complete his mission. He would not die in vain.

She scrambled to her feet, rushing over to the computer in the middle of the room filled with screens. As she stood at the screen, she glanced down at the panel in front of her. All it would require was her handprint to begin the program. She looked up at the screen where a textbox read: **Do You Wish To Activate?**

Thoughts flew through her mind, James choosing _her_ as the one to have the Intersect, Lena telling her she was a hero, William telling her she could be a great spy, and finally James’ last words about how powerful the new computer was. 

If James was not around to fight Leviathan anymore, then she would step up. She would avenge his death and take down every member of Leviathan if it was the last thing she did.

With a deep inhale of breath, she placed her hand on the activation panel.

The computer hummed to life, the Intersect cube lighting up as the lights in the room dimmed and the screens flashed on.

Images flashed all over the room, forcing her eyes open. The familiar feeling of her brain expanding with all of the knowledge she was uploading overcame her, but there was something more, something she could not recognise. It felt like it was too big for her mind to contain and she had the distinct thought that perhaps this was how she died---by essentially microwaving her brain---when the screens powered down and she slumped against the desk, too weak to stand.

She gasped and tried to push herself upright, pushing the disk James had given her into the outlet. An alarm began to ring out and the screen read: **System Failure**. She watched in awe as the screens began to spark and the computer in front of her warped. The Intersect cube lost it’s glow and began to melt. Whatever the hell James had given her had worked, the Intersect was destroyed. 

She had only a brief moment of satisfaction before the door to the vault slid open and the Leviathan team entered, guns drawn, with Hank, William, and Lena in tow.

The leader raised his gun and pointed it at her. 

“What did you do?”

She stared at him, the words trapped in her throat, as her brain tried to recover from the massive beating it had just taken. The agent stepped forward and pointed his gun right at her head. 

_“What did you do?!”_

“I destroyed it,” she gasped out weakly, her head swimming. “You’re too late.”

He rushed over to the computer in panic. “For that, you’ll die last.”

Kara looked over to Lena who was staring at her in panic. She glanced over to James’ lifeless body, and watched as Lena followed her gaze. She gasped in shock. “James?!”

Lena jerked away from her captor and ran to his body, shaking him and calling his name until they pulled her away. “No! Help him!” One of the agents began dragging his body out of the room and Kara heard Lena scream, _“Don’t you touch him!!!”_

The agents shoved the trio together against the wall, seperate from Kara, who was still standing stock still in the middle of the room.

Lena looked over at her, tears in her eyes, and Kara mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ to her, knowing exactly how much pain she was in at that moment. 

“There’s nothing left!” The Leviathan agent shouted, slamming his hand down onto the desk in frustration.

“So you lose,” Hank sneered.

The man glanced up, his face contorting into a sardonic glare, as he walked around the desk to stand in front of him. “You should know this: _no one_ stops us. No one ever has. Leviathan is everywhere.”

“Who are you?” Lena asked angrily. 

“Spies, Agent Luthor,” he replied, raising his gun and pointing it right between her eyes. “The best.”

Kara watched as he raised his gun to Lena’s face, her heart beginning to race, and immediately she felt herself begin to flash. But this was different. It felt different -- bigger -- like she was downloading a full terabyte of data from her brain.

She gasped as the flash ended, catching the attention of the agents holding her at gunpoint. One of them called over their leader. “Sir, you should look at this.”

He walked over to Kara, his eyes narrowed in thought.

“Kara, did you just flash?” Lena asked quickly.

Kara blinked rapidly, trying to clear out the cobwebs, as the leader came to a stop in front of her, recognition dawning in his eyes.

“She uploaded it,” he said incredulously.

“Oh fuck me,” William whispered.

“Kill her,” the agent said, turning away. 

All at once, Kara felt her body spring into action. Moving faster than lightning, she quickly knocked the guns away from the agents on either side of her and landed a kick to the one directly in front of her.

One of the agents dove at her and she felt her body contort and move into a backflip, skillfully moving away from her attackers. 

She had only a moment to marvel at what was happening to her before they were on her again. As one threw a punch, she ducked and somersaulted away, kicking his feet out from under him. Jumping to her feet, she felt another grab her arm and a third came rushing at her. She pulled her arm out of her jacket sleeve, leaving the agent holding nothing but fabric, and landed a hard kick to her oncoming attacker. Turning, she blocked a punch from her jacket thief and socked him hard in the temple.

He collapsed at her feet and she stared at her hands in awe. Her body wasn’t moving of its own volition -- she was very much in control -- it was more that she just instinctually knew what move to make next. 

_Like the information had been programmed into her brain._

The remaining four agents attacked her all at once, but it felt to Kara like everything was happening in slow motion. She felt as though she had entered some sort of dream land, where everything happened at her pace. Chuckling to herself, she realised it felt like that scene in The Matrix when Neo finally unlocks his power and fights Agent Smith one-handed. 

No sooner had that thought occurred to her, than she put one hand behind her back -- just to test it. The result was instantaneous. The programming in her brain immediately compensated for the loss of function in that arm and she artfully ducked and dodged blow after blow, landing hard punches and kicks where she could.

_This was incredible._ She didn’t even need to look to know when an agent was coming -- she already knew where they would be. Or rather, the Intersect did.

And then there were three. She blocked a kick and a punch from one, holding his arm while she punched out the second. Turning back, she twisted the man’s arm above his head, the joint in his shoulder giving a sickening crunch as she did so, forcing him down onto his knees. She struck him in the head so hard that he was unconscious before he hit the floor.

Turning back, she closelined her third attacker and sent him crashing to the ground where she kicked him hard in the head.

One to go. The leader attacked, matching her movement step for step until she managed to land a punch to his throat. He staggered backward wheezing and Kara spun, executing a perfect roundhouse kick directly to the center of his chest. He fell to the ground, gasping and clutching his chest, unable to catch his breath.

Kara looked around the room in shock. Six Leviathan agents, all unconscious by her, and her alone, and without even breaking a sweat. She stood there, panting from exhilaration, not exertion as she took in the enormity of what had just happened. She was brought out of her reverie by Hank’s confused, “Uhhhh…”

Kara looked up at the three agents, her eyes flicking between them in panic. 

“Kara?” Lena asked, eyes wide with shock and concern.

Kara inhaled deeply, trying to catch her breath. “Guys...I know kung fu.”

***

Kara blinked quickly as the Agency doctor waved a flashlight in front of her eyes. She was sitting on the table in the medbay of The Tower, electrodes and leads attached to nearly every part of her body, as they checked her over for any bad effects or brain damage from uploading the new Intersect.

“Tell me again how this happened?”

Colonel Haley was on the screen talking to Agent Dey about Kara’s condition. 

“Why the hell would she upload it? Why was she even there to begin with?!”

“General, I believe Kara felt she was acting in the best interests of her team,” said William, speaking confidently. “She knew that she could handle uploading the Intersect because she’d already done it twice before. Apparently, shortly before his death, Agent Olsen relayed the information about the nature of Intersect 2.0. Kara felt that uploading the program was the only way to protect the country and her team, and to prevent Leviathan from getting their hands on it.”

Kara stared at him in shock. She had not expected him to go to bat for her, let alone make her out to be some kind of American hero. 

“General,” she piped up, not wanting credit that she didn’t earn, “to be fair, James didn’t really explain the nature of the new Intersect to me. I didn’t know I’d be getting all of these...skills. He only told me that Leviathan could not be allowed to get to it. That it was too powerful. That’s the only reason I uploaded it. I’m not some hero like William’s making me out to be.”

Haley frowned at her. “Regardless of how you came to be in possession of Intersect 2.0, you now have it, and we have to decide what we’re going to do with you.”

Kara paled as she glanced over to Hank and Lena, who both looked tense. “D-Do with me?”

“Yes. I want you trained. If you’re going to be our new Intersect agent, then we’re going to make you the best damn agent we’ve got.”

Kara breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, well that’s...that’s awesome General! Agent Dey was just saying that he wanted me to start training--”

“Not that kind of training,” William interrupted, turning to Kara with his arms crossed. “ _Real_ training. At a CIA facility.”

***

The next night, Hank handed her a ticket and a CIA-issued passport. This was really happening. She was really going to be trained to be a spy. 

Inhaling quickly, she flipped open the passport and saw her alias, Kara Dawson, on the first page. She blew a breath out and looked up at Hank.

“What about Alex and Kelly? What do I tell them? What do I tell Winn?”

“Tell them you’re going on a last minute trip to Europe, six weeks.”

“Okay, where am I _really_ going?”

“A red site training facility in Prague.”

“What am I going to be doing there?” She asked, hoping for some specifics.

“ _Training,_ moron,” Hank replied, rolling his eyes. “For you, for the new Intersect. They’re going to use it to turn you into a real super spy.”

She noticed Lena in the corner of the room, her arms wrapped around her body as if to protect herself from something. A frown was cast over her beautiful features, and she looked deep in thought. She was staring at Kara, but something in her eyes told Kara that she wasn’t really seeing her.

Hank finished her flight instructions and clapped her on the back, leaving her staring down at the documents in her hand. Her reverie was broken by Lena pushing herself off the wall and making her way toward the door. 

Kara rushed after her, nearly barrelling down the CIA doctor as she left the base.

“Lena, hey! Hey, did Hank tell you? They’re moving me to a training facility? I’m gonna be a real spy!”

“I know, I heard,” Lena said with a frown, pulling her down the hallway and into the armory, closing the door behind them. 

“What’s the matter?”

Lena swallowed, her eyes wide. “If you do this -- if you go -- you’re going to be a spy for the rest of your life. Every city is going to be a new mission and a new identity, and...you’re not going to be the same person.”

Kara furrowed her brow in confusion. Of course she wouldn’t be the same person. She would become someone better! Someone more capable. Someone that wasn’t just a dumb civilian who was lucky enough to get a supercomputer dumped into their head. 

“Yeah, that’s a great thing!”

“No, no it’s not, it’s--” Her gaze shifted down to the floor as her voice wavered in fear. “Kara, we could...we could…”

“We could what?”

Lena hesitated, hugging her arms around her body again, her chest rising and falling quickly, as she tried to gather the courage to say what she wanted to say.

“We could run,” she replied softly, looking up into Kara’s eyes, her own glinting with unshed tears. “We could run away together, you and me. We go now, and we never look back.”

Kara stared at her in shock. “Are--are you serious?”

Lena nodded slowly. “I have some money saved up. I’d have to get us some new identities, create an escape route…”

Kara felt her heart burst into fire. This was it. Lena was asking her to run away together. Lena wanted a life with her. This was what she had been dreaming of. Maybe not the running away part, but when she considered it, she found that she didn’t hate the idea. It would be hard to leave Alex and Kelly, but it wouldn’t be forever. Just until they got settled. She looked up into Lena’s determined face, and realised she was still speaking.

“...have to figure that part out, but for now, go to Prague like normal. Meet me at the Nadrazi train station in three weeks’ time at 7:00pm, and then I can figure the rest out from there.”

Kara’s whole body felt numb as she stared down into Lena’s hopeful face. “What are you saying?”

Lena gave a half-shrug and a sad smile as a tear fell down her cheek. “I’m saying I want to be a real person again. _With you_.”

Kara felt her heart stutter at those words. Lena wanted to be with her too. Lena wanted to be with _her._ Her body tingled and she felt butterflies take flight all over her body as she considered Lena's words. She hadn’t had any idea about how Lena felt about her life with the agency. No idea that what Lena really wanted was a normal life too.

Lena’s eyes flicked back and forth between hers in fear. “This is what you want, right? I mean, this is it, Kara.” She gave a small smile, softly taking both of Kara’s hands in hers. “Will you run away with me?”

Kara gazed down at her in disbelief. This had to be a dream. She gave a little huff of a laugh. “Yeah...yeah!”

Lena’s face split into a beaming smile, adoration and relief filling her eyes. Kara pulled her into a deep kiss, gripping her face between her palms, determined not to let this gorgeous woman slip away. This was it. She had found her future.

***

Kara entered the apartment that night to find Alex on the couch, rubbing her head with one hand, a glass of scotch in the other.

“Hey sis,” she said, dropping her bag by the door and sitting down next to her on the couch. “You doing okay?”

Alex sighed, setting her glass down on the table. “Just wedding stuff. Kelly’s mom is...not making things easier.” She leaned her head back on the couch and squeezed her eyes closed. “I tried every trick and called in every favour I had and I can’t get an earlier date at the church.”

She dragged her hands down her face in exasperation. “We didn’t want to wait so long to get married. If I had it my way, we’d just get married in a small ceremony on the beach...sand between our toes…”

She huffed out a deep breath, grabbing her drink. “But those are the sacrifices you make for family, I suppose.”

Kara sat quietly, waiting for her to finish. Telling Alex she was leaving was going to be difficult, but she hoped that her sister would be happy for her.

“Well, it’s probably for the best that you have the extra time. I still don’t know what I’m getting you for a wedding present,” she joked. “But I’ll start with this: I quit the Nerd Herd today.”

Alex snapped her head up in shock. “What?!”

Kara nodded. “Yep. The Nerd Herd is no more.”

“Kara that is -- that is incredible! What are you gonna do with your future?”

Kara squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about…”

Alex’s brow furrowed, but she stayed silent as Kara continued, her heart beating quickly.

“See, I got these round-the-world trip tickets? They were on sale -- an incredible deal -- and...well, I asked Lena, and she and I are gonna go on the trip together. We leave tomorrow.”

Alex gaped at her in shock. “Tomorrow?! For how long?!”

Kara winced. “Undetermined. At least six weeks. But--but don’t worry! I _will_ be back in time for the wedding! You know I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”

Alex frowned. “No, just all the planning and dealing with Kelly’s family.” 

Kara’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry sis. I know it’s kinda selfish, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and…”

Alex studied her for a moment in pensive silence. Then she smiled softly. “No, no you’re right. This is huge for you. I’m really proud of you, Kara.” 

Kara let herself be pulled into a tight hug, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

“I’m making my dreams come true, sis. I’m glad you’re doing the same.”

***


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara deals with the fallout of her decision. An old friend of Lena's asks for her help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot to post this morning lol
> 
> You might be a little bit confused in the beginning, but bear with me and it will all become clear. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!

_Six Months Later -- Prague_

The black bag whipped off of her head and Kara blinked quickly to acclimate herself to the dim lighting in the room. A single lamp hung low over the table where she sat, and she could make out four blurry figures surrounding her as her eyes adjusted.

A whistle from across the table caught her attention and she looked up quickly.

“Agent Dawson,” said the man across from her, his thick Russian accent rolling over her name with ease.

“Call me Kara,” she replied calmly. “You have something that belongs to my boss, Yuri. The case. I would like for you to give it to me. Please.”

Yuri leaned over the table, grinning like a wolf. “Ha! You show up with no gun, and ‘please’ and what? I quiver in fear?”

A soft voice came through her earpiece. _“We’ve got a lock on the case. It’s in the room with you.”_

Kara looked around to the henchmen and found one standing off to the side with a suspicious looking silver briefcase in his hand. She slid back a little from the table, readying herself for her next move. 

“Give me the case,” she began, her voice totally even. “Or else.”

Yuri chuckled. “Or else what?” He whipped out his gun, pointing it at her, the safety clicking off. “Or else I do this?”

Kara’s eyes rolled back as she began to flash. “No. I was thinking something more like this.”

Jumping up out of her seat, she grabbed the arm holding the pistol and slammed it up into the hanging lamp, throwing the light all around the room as she smashed his hand down onto the table, loosening his grip on the gun and grabbing it from him, pointing it at the group. The other henchmen quickly went to draw their weapons and she assessed the situation.

“Ah ah! Everybody just be cool! Everybody just chill out. On the ground, now!” 

The henchmen laid down on the ground, hands clasped behind her head as she set her sights on their leader. “Very good. Now, Yuri, give me the case, and after that it’s pierogie time!”

Yuri took a step closer. “No.”

_“Shoot him, Kara.”_ The voice in her earpiece insisted.

“Do it,” Yuri taunted, “shoot me.”

Kara’s heart began to race. “Don’t mess with me Yuri.”

_“Shoot him now!”_

Yuri turned to his henchmen and gave an order in Russian, all three of them leaping to their feet and rushing Kara now that they knew she wouldn’t fire her gun. 

Grasping her pistol by the barrel, she used it to knock out two of the Russians, kicking a chair across the room and into the legs of the third before Yuri threw a punch to her face, throwing her off balance and knocking the gun out of her hand. Recovering quickly, she jumped up and grabbed onto the top of the doorframe, swinging her legs out and striking Yuri right in the face.

_“Kara, what is happening? Your heart rate is spiking! Are you okay?”_

“I’m okay!” She shouted into her watch as she looked around at the fallen thugs. “I got punched in the face,” she gasped, catching her breath, “and it’s throbbing a little bit!”

_“Get out of there! Now!”_

Kara grabbed the briefcase and dashed out of the room, down the hallway, and out onto the street. “Where’s my exit?”

_“They’re closing in on you! Get to a roof! The chopper is inbound.”_

She sprinted down the street, searching for the nearest building with rooftop access. As she sprinted up the nearest fire escape, she clutched the case to her chest and shouted into her watch, “Listen, I don’t want to sound demanding here, but I could really use that chopper right now!”

_“The chopper is too far out,”_ the voice responded, _“Satellite says there’s a power line on the roof that runs to the next building. Zipline across and we’ll find you a new exit.”_

Kara stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean ‘zipline’?!”

_“It’s in the Intersect, Kara,”_ the voice huffed in exasperation.

Kara darted out onto the roof and saw the power line. She also saw the five story drop to the cobblestoned pavement below. “Okay. Okay, I can do this.”

She yanked off her belt and looped it over the powerline, gripping both sides of the leather, and waited for the Intersect to show her what to do.

Nothing happened. Her heart began to race even faster. 

“I don’t--I don’t think this is a good idea!”

_“Do it, Kara! Flash!”_

“Look, if you stress me out, it’s never gonna work!”

_“Kara. FLASH!”_

Kara stared intently at the cable extending out before her, but nothing happened. Concentrating so hard she was afraid she would pop a blood vessel, she began muttering, “Come on! Flash! 1, 2, 3, Flash! Come on!!”

She looked down again, saw the long drop to the ground below and felt queasy. “I don’t think my vertigo is helping here!”

There was no answer.

“General, are you there?” No answer. “General?!”

Great big floodlights powered on, shining brightly in her eyes. The click of military issued heels sounded over the cobblestones, followed by the squeal of a megaphone turning on. 

“That’s all, Frank. Terminate the simulation!” Haley shouted into the megaphone. A bell rang out and ‘Yuri’ and his henchmen immediately dropped their act, the man playing Yuri beginning to speak to his counterparts in his deep-South Louisiana accent.

Kara watched from her spot on the roof, her hands still clutched around the makeshift zipline of her belt.

“Kara?” General Haley called. “You can come down now.”

***

“Why didn’t you shoot Yuri, Kara?” Haley asked as they walked back to base.

“Well, uh…we were very close, and while I realise it’s just a simulation, safety first, you know? And to be perfectly honest, I’m still not comfortable with the whole -- you know -- shooting people thing.”

Haley stopped, turning to face the blonde. “This isn’t working out.”

“Look, General, I realise that we’ve had our setbacks, I do! But let’s not dwell on the past here! I’m convinced I can be a great spy! I know it!”

Haley sighed. “We’ve spent millions of dollars to get you up and running as our new Intersect agent. _It’s not working._ For God’s sake, this was supposed to take six weeks! You’ve been here six _months_ , with no improvement!”

Kara felt her heart begin to pound again. “Well...well maybe I can help! I’m good with computers! Let me take a look at the Intersect programming!”

Haley closed her eyes and breathed deeply before opening them again. 

“The problem is not with the computer, Kara. It’s with _you_.”

Kara paled. “What?”

“The Intersect 2.0 was designed to go into a _real_ spy -- someone like James Olsen. Someone in complete control of their feelings.”

Kara’s heart stuttered up into her throat. “What are you saying?”

“It’s over. You’ll go back to National City, where our field unit there will keep an eye on you until a final decision can be made regarding your status.”

The world ground to a halt around Kara. “Wait--wait. Hold on just a second here. Are you--are you firing me, General? Do you-- Do you have any idea what I gave up for this?!”

Haley stared at her in disinterest. “Goodbye, Kara.”

_“No! You don’t know what I said no to for this!”_

Haley nodded to someone behind her and a pinch to her neck made Kara stop in her tracks. Then darkness crowded her vision, and she was falling to the ground, a tranquiliser dart stuck in her skin.

***

“Kara?”

Alex snapped her fingers in front of her sister’s face as the blonde sat on the couch, gazing out into nothingness, her usually bright warm face turned down into a frown just as it had been for the past week since she'd returned home without Lena. Alex had tried to get answers out of her but so far had been unsuccessful. 

“Kara, hey. Look at me! Where’s Lena?”

“I lost her,” Kara replied in a monotone, never breaking her gaze with the wall. “The girl of my dreams, it was all my fault.”

Alex exchanged a worried look with Kelly, who was staring at Kara with an eyebrow raised. “Well...maybe not! Why don’t you just pick up the phone and call her? I’m sure you two can work it out! I’m sure she misses you too.”

Kara broke her gaze with the wall and grabbed her phone. Could they work it out? Would Lena even take her call?

***

Across town, Lena rolled over in bed as her phone rang. Grabbing it, she checked the caller ID.

“Who is it?” William asked, rolling over to drape his arm across her bare stomach, shooting a glance at the name on her phone. 

“No one,” she replied, silencing the device and tossing it back onto the nightstand. “You should get up soon, though, or you’ll miss your flight to D.C.”

William sighed. “You know she’s back in town, right?”

Lena didn’t answer. 

“You gonna be okay while I’m gone?”

“I’ll be fine.”

William kissed her shoulder and sat up, pulling back the covers. Lena didn’t move, didn’t smile, didn’t show any emotion at all. They’d been doing this for three months and the agent never warmed up to him, not even in a post-coital haze. She had made it clear that this was just sex, that there would be nothing more between them. He had to wonder if Kara was the reason why.

Buttoning his shirt, he turned back to where she still sat in bed, looking out the window pensively. “What happened between you two anyway?”

Lena didn’t answer.

***

_Six months earlier -- Nadrazi Train Station, Prague_

Lena stood on the platform, new identities and train tickets in hand. Her heart was pounding, her stomach was fluttering, she was more anxious than she’d ever been in her life, and yet somehow she had found a state of calm in her actions. She was taking control of her life again. She was never going to have to hurt people or kill again. And most importantly...she was going to be with Kara. 

Kara, who had somehow managed to worm her way through the cracks in the walls around her heart, who had made her believe in love and the gift of a life outside of the spy world, who made her warm and happy.

It had been three weeks to the day since she had last seen her before Kara had been sent to the training facility, and she could hardly contain her excitement at the thought of seeing her again. 

She turned and saw the object of her affection step out onto the platform, her black coat ruffling in the breeze. She looked _dashing._ Lena was in deep. In all of the hubbub surrounding Leviathan, Agent Dey, Intersect 2.0, and now with Kara being in training, she still hadn’t gotten the chance to tell Kara that she loved her back, not in so many words. But there would be time for all of that now. They had the rest of their lives. She smiled to herself as the blonde strode toward her with purpose, an unreadable expression on her face. 

Kara stepped in front of her finally, her blonde hair falling like a crown around her tan, freckled face, and Lena fell all over again. 

“Here is your ticket and your new passport,” she said, handing them to her, “Your new name is Kara Zorel.”

“Lena, wait--”

“We’ll have plenty of time to talk on the train, right now we have to act fast.” She smiled brightly. “Trust me, Kara, it’s all going to work out fine.”

As she stared up into Kara’s unreadable expression, she saw a hint of a frown fall over her beautiful features, and suddenly it felt like someone had thrown ice water all over her. Was Kara getting cold feet? Was she just nervous? She needed to reassure her that this was the right choice. Pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, she pressed kiss after kiss to Kara’s lips, to her cheeks, the tip of her nose, and back to her lips again, but Kara seemed to be an almost unwilling participant.

She pulled away slowly, panic sitting low in her chest, disappointment and confusion sitting somewhere higher. “That’s not the kiss I was expecting.”

Kara licked her lips slowly, her eyes full of sadness. 

“Lena...there is an entire facility here dedicated and designed to turning me into Intersect 2.0. I mean, think about it! Think about that: me, a real spy! You know? Living a life of adventure, and--and doing things that really matter!”

Lena’s stomach dropped and she shook her head quickly, her eyes falling closed as she tried to keep down the bile she felt rising in her throat. “It’s not that simple. You don’t know who you’re working for, it’s complicated, nothing is _real._ ” 

Grabbing Kara’s hand, she held it close to her heart, in her own, desperately willing Kara not to do this. “ _This_...this is real. This is simple. This is a real life.”

Kara looked down at their clasped hands, her eyes moving back and forth like she was searching for an answer there.

The train whistle blew.

“We have to go, Kara,” she urged desperately, her voice wet with emotion. “Are you coming?”

Tears filled her eyes as she looked up into Kara’s and saw the answer already there, painted in the saddest blue. Kara gently pulled her hand away and replaced it with the ticket and passport that Lena had given her. 

“I can’t. I’m sorry.”

And Lena’s heart shattered right there on the train platform in Prague, as she watched the woman she had fallen so hard for walk away from her, until her eyes were so full of tears, she could no longer see.

***

Kara let the phone fall to her side. 

Of course Lena would not take her call. Not after what she had done to her. She looked down at her t-shirt, covered in cheeseball dust and realised it was the Female Body Inspector shirt Lena had given her as a joke.

A wave of determination washed over her. If Lena wouldn’t answer her calls, she would just go see her. She _had_ to fix this. 

***

When she stepped into the Wienerlicious, her heart began to pound. What would she say when she saw Lena? What would she _do_? Should she just pull the classic debonair approach and sweep her off her feet into a deep, bruising kiss? Should she try to explain? 

Movement from around the corner caught her eye, and she straightened up, smoothing her wrinkled and cheeseball stained t-shirt. In hindsight, perhaps she should have changed before coming to see her.

“Lena?”

But it was Hank who stepped out from the backroom. He took one good look at her, raised an eyebrow and said, “Heard you were a lemon, Danvers, but this is pathetic...even for you.” He grinned. “What the hell are you doing here? I didn’t call you to come in.”

Kara thought quickly. “I...uh...think I left a light jacket in The Tower. I was just here to pick it up.”

Hank frowned at her obvious lie, but turned and allowed her to follow him down into the base. “Hurry it up, I have to finish packing.”

Kara looked around at the barren base. It looked like things were being shut down here. She supposed that Haley had told them to close up shop when Kara had left, supposed they would no longer need the base under the Nerd Herd if Kara was supposed to be out being a real spy and saving the world. The thought stung.

“So...what’s been going on in the bizz? Been talking to anyone in the old gang? ...Lena, for instance?” She asked, trying to be subtle, but not pulling it off at all.

“Nope,” Hank replied, closing a case of weaponry as his phone rang on the table next to her. She looked down and saw: **AGENT LUTHOR** on the caller ID and gave him a look of betrayal. “Really?”

He ignored her and picked up the call. “Yeah?”

“Can I talk to her when you’re done?” 

Hank turned away from her. “Yeah. Mmhmm. 7:00. Got it.”

Kara ran in front of him and whispered, “If you could just...just ask her if she’s been getting my messages because I’ve been calling...a lot.”

Hank frowned at her and turned back to his call. “It’s the lemon. Duly noted. See ya.” And then he hung up the call.

Kara gasped. “Wh--did she say anything about me?”

“Nope.”

“Well...are you guys going on a mission? You need backup? I can still flash!” She asked desperately, almost manic.

“Heh. Not what I heard,” Hank muttered.

“Come on, man! Look, Haley canned me. I need to prove to her that I can still do this! That I can be a real spy!”

Hank turned back to her. “Can you?”

“Yes! And this could work too, because if I can get Haley to reinstate me, then maybe she’ll put the old team back together!”

“Oh yeah...and then all of my dreams come true,” Hank huffed sarcastically as he turned back to the computer.

Kara sighed, resigned. “Fine. Whatever. I’m heading out. Have fun with your spy game and stay in touch. Or don’t. Whatever.”

Hank stood up and assessed her, a confused frown on his features. He wasn’t used to the blonde giving up so easily. “Hey. What happened between you and Luthor?”

Kara stopped halfway out the door. “Something I have to fix.”

As she stepped around the corner, Lena entered the base, and her whole world came to a halt. A low humming began to ring through her head and it was like there was a beam of light radiating down on the woman she had let slip through her fingers. Her heart pounded, her fingers tingled, and her breath caught tightly in her throat.

As Lena registered her presence, as their eyes met, green on blue, Kara felt the most intense feeling of regret wash over her. 

She was so fucking stupid. 

“Kara?” Lena said quietly, as if in disbelief that she was really there. 

“Hey,” she replied softly, giving a dumb little wave. Lena stared at her for a moment and then gestured for her to follow her into an interrogation room off the hallway. Kara closed the door behind them and they stood in silence for a moment. Kara studied her as the silence stretched on. She’d lost some weight and her bright smile was missing, replaced with lips in a thin line, but otherwise she looked exactly the same. 

“We should--we should talk,” Lena began hesitantly, but then made no move to begin.

“I’ll go first,” Kara offered, and Lena nodded.

She cleared her throat. Moment of truth time. 

“Lena, they wanted me to be a spy. They told me that I could make a difference. For years, I’ve been kicking around, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life like a -- like a loser. And then one day, really important people told me that they thought that I could change the world. _Me_ , Kara Danvers.” She paused. This was the hard part. Telling Lena that it wasn’t about not loving her. 

“It was never about you or--”

“Stop,” Lena interrupted harshly. She took a deep breath. “I acted...impulsively. And it’s a mistake I don’t usually make. And it won’t happen again.”

Her voice was flat and even. No emotion. Her walls were back up.

“But, Lena I--”

“You’re a spy now, Kara. You have to keep your feelings to yourself.”

And with that, she walked out of the room, leaving Kara devastated in her wake.

***

Lena walked into the club that night, happy to take a load off for once. An old friend from back when she had first joined the CIA was in town randomly, and it was just the escape she needed.

They kept in touch over the years, mostly just locations, never too much info about ongoing missions, but she was the closest thing that Lena had to a best friend in this world, and it was nice when they were able to catch up. And right now, she desperately needed a distraction.

She spotted the long-legged, gorgeous brunette across the bar and quickly made her way over. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” she greeted, throwing an arm around the woman’s neck. “What’s your cover?”

“Samantha Arias,” the woman replied, squeezing her tightly. “Yours?”

“Lena Luthor,” she replied, grinning brighter than she had in months. She could already feel the tension with Kara slipping away from her after two minutes in Sam’s presence.

Sam handed her a shot and clinked her glass with her own. “You look great! A little frowny, but super hot!”

Lena laughed, tossing back the shot. “God, it feels like I haven’t been off duty in years!” Sam quickly motioned to the bartender, who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the pair of them, for another round.

“How long are you in town for?”

Sam grinned. “Oh believe me, I plan on getting out quick. National City has all the cultural panache of a portapotty.”

Lena threw her head back and laughed. “I’ve missed you.”

“So, why are _you_ still here?” Sam asked, tilting her head to look at her curiously. “How long could you possibly have to protect some doofus who works at a computer store?”

Lena grimaced and she felt her shoulders creep back up at the mention of Kara, and she was quick to change the subject. “You know, I don’t really want to talk about work.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed and a mischievous grin slid onto her lips. “Ahhhh...so you’re sleeping with her?”

Lena blanched. “No! We have a _very_ professional relationship,” she said, throwing back another shot.

Sam tilted her head to the other side, her eyes boring into Lena’s. “Oh.”

Lena looked away, flagging down the bartender (he was still staring so it wasn’t hard) and when she looked back, Sam was still staring at her with the same curious expression. 

“What?”

“Nothing. You’re just really into her, that’s all.”

She sighed. “Sam, can we _please_ not talk about Kara?”

Sam gasped. “Oh my God, Luthor.”

“What?!”

“You broke the cardinal rule of spying, didn’t you?”

Lena just stared at her. It wasn’t like she was wrong, but after so long trying to rebuild the wall around her heart, she was not just going to let it crumble again.

She downed another shot.

***

Kara lay on her bed, xbox controller in hand, slicing through the zombies in her game, Winn sitting next to her.

“Dude,” he said, “you’re breaking the cardinal rule of getting dumped.”

“Can we please talk about something other than Lena?”

Winn set down his controller. “Yeah, we could. Except you’re moping, dude.”

“I am not moping,” Kara replied flatly, not breaking her gaze from the screen.

Winn yanked the controller out of her hand. “Come on, man!”

Kara sighed in exasperation. “Could you at least pause the game?!”

Winn ignored her. “Look, I know you’re upset about Lena, but there’s no pause button on life. You see what I’m trying to say?”

Kara just stared at him. All she wanted to do was sit here, eat her cheeseballs, slay some zombies, and not think about Lena.

“We are two very, very sexy bachelors with the world at our fingertips! Our lives are incredible!”

Kara stared at the screen, where her unpaused character was getting sliced and gored by hordes of zombies. It felt symbolic in a way.

“Yeah, incredibly average to subpar.”

Winn sighed. “Look, all I’m saying is there’s gotta be what? Two million women in this city? They can’t _all_ say no to us!”

Kara huffed and finally looked over at him. He had a goofy smile plastered on his face, and she knew he was doing his best to help her. She loved him for that. 

“What do you propose, Winn?”

***

They strode into the club, the pounding beat feeling like someone was bringing a hammer down on her eardrums. 

Well, Winn strode in. Kara slumped in.

“Target rich, Kara!” Said Winn, gesturing around the room at all the women. He led them to a group to their right.

“Thirsty, ladies? Cosmo, piña colada, mai-tai, rum and coke?”

The women turned around and walked away. Not to be deterred, he smiled and said, “Well hydrated already? Alrighty then!” And moved on further into the club.

Kara sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging. “Okay, look buddy, I don’t really know if I’m ready to do this.”

Winn gripped her shoulders and looked up into her eyes. “Hey, look man, no one’s asking you to fall in love! We’re just here to help you forget about Lena for a little while, okay?”

Kara relaxed a little. She supposed she could chat to some people. If nothing came of it, that was perfectly alright with her. “Ok I think I can--”

“Oh my God, it’s Lena!”

Kara snapped her head down to Winn who was staring across the bar. “Wait, what? What--wh--what do you mean? _My_ Lena?”

“Technically she’s single, if you think about it, so…” Seeing the look on Kara’s face, he corrected with, “Yes, _your_ Lena!”

Kara searched through the sea of faces and found the one she was looking for, walking through the crowd with a very gorgeous Hispanic woman. Was Lena here on a date? Just as she was about to turn away, Lena caught her eye across the room and even in the dimly lit nightclub, she could see her go pale.

“Hey, buddy why don’t you go get us some drinks and I’ll--I’ll--” she trailed off, not really knowing where she was going with that thought, but Winn seemed to understand. He clapped her on the back.

“Go get her, buddy.”

Kara made her way through the crowd, never breaking eye contact with Lena, except for when Lena turned to the woman next to her and muttered something.

“Hey,” she said when she finally stood in front of the agent, “fancy seeing you here.”

“Kara.” Lena gave her a grimace that she was sure was meant to be a smile. “What are you doing here? Are you spying on me?”

“No! I don’t-- I’m just out here for an innocent evening with Winn. We’re just...you know...soaking in the sights and sounds of whatever the evening has to offer.”

“Great,” Lena replied with fake brightness.

“Great,” she replied in kind.

“Good.”

Sam cleared her throat, looking back and forth between the two. 

Lena finally seemed to remember she was there. 

“Oh, this is Samantha Arias. We worked together a long time ago, and she happened to be in town, so we’re catching up.”

Kara stuck a hand out. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Kara. I also work with Lena.”

Sam smirked. “Oh I know.”

Lena shot her a warning glance. Out of nowhere, a tall Indian man with a magnificently styled beard came out of nowhere and hugged Sam from behind. “Hey baby!”

Sam laughed brightly. “Hey love, I missed you!” 

Lena caught sight of her quickly sliding a rather large engagement ring onto her finger as she kissed the man. 

Oh. So Sam was in town on an op. That was why she had requested to meet at this club. Because she already needed to be here for her job. 

Sam turned and smiled brightly at the pair, and Lena hoped Kara would play along. “Oh I’m so glad you both are here! This way I can tell you our great news at the same time.” She turned back to the man still holding her. “This is my fiancé, Jack Spheer.”

Lena schooled her face into one of happy surprise. “Oh wow!”

Sam turned her attention back to Jack, making introductions. “This is Lena Luthor, my best friend, and Kara...her _girlfriend._ ” She leveled a pointed stare at Lena as she chose their cover identity for them, and Lena felt Kara jolt a little bit next to her before snaking an arm around her shoulders.

“That’s right,” Kara said brightly, “Kara the girlfriend! That’s me!”

Jack smiled, showing off perfectly white teeth. “Great to meet you guys,” he replied in a thick English accent.

“You too!” Kara and Lena replied together. 

“Yeah,” Kara continued, rambling a little, “it’s so crazy! Good to finally put a face to all of the amazing stories we’ve heard for so _long--_ ” 

“Right! So long,” Lena added.

“-- or short, depending on the length of your courtship,” Kara added quickly.

“It really is so good to meet you,” Lena continued. “I mean, you’re exactly how Sam described you.”

“To the ‘T’,” Kara supplied helpfully.

“Thank you,” Jack said with a laugh. “Love really has made me a better man.” He turned and pressed a kiss to Sam’s lips. “What about you, Kara?”

Kara frowned. “What about me? Oh love? Yeah, love-- love--” She glanced down at Lena, who was looking at her expectantly, but with no small amount of curiosity in her gaze. “Love is a powerful tonic, is it not?” 

Jack grinned and pressed a kiss to Sam’s temple. “Well, I’m really sorry to cut this short, guys, but I’ve booked a romantic dinner for two.”

“Oh sure, go do it, yeah,” Kara urged, trying to ignore the way her body felt like it was on fire being this close to Lena again. 

“I’ll meet you at the valet?” Jack said to Sam, who nodded and kissed him hard. “I’ll miss you, Jackie,” she replied, staring into his eyes.

Jack waved at them and headed toward the bar to close out their tab, and Kara turned to Sam. “Wow, congratulations! You guys seem really in love!”

She turned back to the bar where Jack was standing. He blew a kiss to Sam and Kara caught sight of a long scar on his arm as he waved to her. 

Her eyes rolled back as she flashed.

“Oh!” She gasped, “Lena, Sam, I hate to be the one to tell you this but Jack is not who you think he is! He’s a bad man! He’s a--”

“An arms dealer?” Sam supplied nonchalantly. “Yeah, my mark.” She snickered. “What, you think I’m an idiot? It’s the cardinal rule...spies don’t fall in love.”

She shifted her gaze to Lena, who fought to keep her face impassive. 

“Welcome to your new mission,” Sam said gleefully, heading for the door.

***

“Agent Arias has been working undercover for the CIA, playing the girlfriend of suspected arms smuggler, Jack Spheer,” Haley informed them from the monitor.

It was early the next morning and the four of them were situated in The Tower. William was still in Washington, which Kara was thankful for. She still didn’t like him much.

“We learned that $10 million dollars was recently wired into Spheer’s account,” Sam continued, walking to the front of the group. “We don’t know what this weapon is, but someone’s willing to pay a lot of money for it.”

“Well, we gotta get it before it falls into enemy hands,” Kara chimed in happily, thrilled to get the chance to be back on the team, proving her worth as a spy.

“Thanks for being on the case, Nancy Drew,” Sam quipped dryly. “My engagement party is today at Jack’s house. Lena and Kara will enter as my best friend and her loving girlfriend -- the cover they established at the club.”

Kara’s shoulders slumped. It wasn’t that she minded playing Lena’s girlfriend, it’s just that she wished that they had had more time to talk about things. It was going to be awkward.

“Is that going to be a problem, Ms. Danvers?” Haley asked.

“No, no problem, I’m cool,” she answered quickly.

“And Hank will pose as my father,” Sam continued on. 

The group all furrowed their brows. Hank spoke up, “Uhhh, check your math and your skin colour, sister. I’ll play a cousin or uncle by marriage or something.”

Sam sneered at him, but turned back to the computer showing her intel. “Jack is storing the weapon in a gold case inside a vault room, adjacent to his bedroom. During Jack’s toast, Lena and Kara will slip out, break into the vault, and then apprehend it. He keeps the access key to the secured area in his pants which...I can easily access--”

“I’ll bet you can,” Hank taunted.

“Jack also just installed a state of the art security system in the vault room,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “so I hope the two of you can handle anything you find there.”

Kara blanched. It would be fine if she could flash, but “anything” was quite a big word.

“Um, ‘any’ is kind of a broad word--”

“Kara is just being modest,” Lena cut in. “Her recent training has equipped her to overcome any obstacle. There won’t be a problem.”

“Better not be,” said Sam in a fierce tone. “I’ve been working this op for two years. Don’t blow it.”

“This whole mission rides on you, Kara,” said Haley, before signing off.

“What a surprise,” she muttered.

***

Sam had come over to Lena’s suite to get ready under the pretense of ‘catching up’, but Lena had the sneaking suspicion that she wanted to press her about Kara.

But interestingly enough, Sam barely said a word throughout their preparations, just a murmured, “Does this look okay?” here and a, “here’s your tactical stiletto” there. They strapped on their thigh holsters together, slid their knives into the compartment of their heels, and finally stood in front of the mirror together, putting the finishing touches on their engagement party outfits.

Sam whisped some mascara onto her eyelashes and glanced quickly at Lena in the mirror. “You wanna talk about what happened with her?”

Lena didn’t respond, didn’t look at her in the mirror, just continued to pick through her earrings like she hadn’t heard her.

“When we wrap this mission, you should come with me on my next assignment. I know it’s not National City, but uh...you can make the best of Saint-Tropez, right?” She grinned conspiratorially.

Lena smiled softly, finally choosing a pair of diamond studs, and began to put them in, stealing a glance at Sam. “Do you...do you ever wonder about a different life?”

“You mean like, if all of this was real? If we were really getting ready for my engagement party?”

“Yeah.”

Sam looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged, shoving her pistol into her thigh holster. 

“Nah.”

And Lena felt a wave of shame wash over her for letting her feelings get so far away from her.

***

The crowd milled around them as Kara stood with Lena on her arm, offering their congratulations to Jack and Sam.

“You two are going to have the most amazing life,” Lena said sweetly.

“You’re a very lucky man, Jack,” added Kara. 

“Thanks, Kara,” Jack replied warmly, clapping her on the shoulder. “I’m sure you’re gonna be next up at the altar!”

Kara forced out a loud laugh. _God, she wished._ “I’d be the happiest woman in the world!”

“She really would be,” Lena quipped, followed by a melodic laugh. The rest of the group joined her. 

Jack pulled away Sam after that to meet some more guests and Lena pulled Kara further into the room to get some mission specifics out of the way. 

“Master bedroom access point is at your six. We’ll move when the room is distracted by the toasts.”

Kara took in the way Lena avoided her eyes, how emotionless her face and voice were, and she was overwhelmed by the rush of thoughts screaming at her to _fix it!_

“Lena, listen. I feel like there’s been this--this thing...hanging over us. You know? Ever since Prague. I mean, I miss you--”

Her thoughts were so jumbled, and Lena was scratching her neck and looking like she’d rather be anywhere than right here.

“I miss this, I miss us--”

Lena yanked her arm and pulled her out of the room. “Jack’s on the move.”

Kara stopped her. “Wait--wait! Look, what I’m trying to say is that even though we’re on a mission, it feels good to hang out together, to talk as friends, you know? Kind of like we used to? I mean, what do you think?”

Lena shifted stiffly, her discomfort radiating off of her in waves. “It’s just a cover, Kara.” She turned around and walked away quickly, leaving Kara staring after her, until a strong hand gripped her arm painfully and she found herself being pulled out of the room by Sam.

“What the _hell_ are you doing to my mission? You and Lena are supposed to be a _happy_ couple!”

Kara sighed sadly. “Look, ever since I got back from Prague, Lena’s been so cold.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, you idiot. The reason Lena is being cold is because _she loves you_. Now, get your head out of your ass and go be a spy!” 

She smacked Kara’s face and walked away.

Kara stood, gobsmacked. _Lena loves her_? Present tense?

Pushing her way through the crowded room, she quickly found the agent and gently grabbed her arm, steering her to the back of the room. 

“Hey, Lena, listen, Sam just said something to me, and I know it’s not the best time but I really need to talk to you.”

Lena’s nostrils flared in frustration. “Okay, Kara, we need to _focus_ _on the mission_. Sam is getting the key from Jack, we don’t have time for this right now.”

They walked through the room, over to where Sam was hugging and kissing Jack intensely, and as Lena walked by, Sam handed off a key card behind Jack’s back without breaking their kiss.

As the couple pulled apart and Jack tinged his glass to begin a toast, Kara and Lena made their way up the stairs, avoiding security and the gaze of other guests, heading to the vault room off the master suite.

When they were alone in the hallway, Kara grabbed Lena’s hand. “Please, can we talk for just a quick second?”

Lena yanked her hand away. “No time.”

As they found the vault, Lena swiped the access card and the steel door slid open, revealing a room only a little larger than a prison cell. The gold briefcase lay at the other end of the room, which was filled with moving lasers that would set off the security protocols.

Kara stared at the lasers and her heart sank. “No way.”

She turned to Lena. “Lena, there’s no way. I can’t get around all these beams without setting the alarm off! It’s impossible!”

Lena turned to her and her gaze hardened. “You can do this, okay? _The Intersect_ can do this. Just focus, and don’t think of anything else. Just...relax.”

Kara slid her suit jacket off and let it fall to the floor, breathing in and out slowly. She began rolling up her sleeves and felt the panic start to set in when she still could not flash. “Come on, relax. Just relax,” she muttered to herself, her heart beginning to race.

Finally she crumbled. “I’m not flashing, Lena! Maybe--maybe if we could just talk for a second--”

Lena closed her eyes and breathed deeply, then opened them and looked right into Kara’s. “Okay Kara, I am right here and we can talk about whatever you want to talk about later, we just have to get our hands on that weapon first.”

Kara looked at her, worried, searching for insincerity.

“We’ll talk, I promise,” she reassured the blonde, softening her gaze.

Kara gave her a soft half-smile and then looked back at the lasers, immediately flashing.

She grinned and jumped into the room, dodging the lasers with ease, backflipping, twisting, contorting her body into positions she never thought possible, a full split being one of them. She quickly made it to the other end and slid the case back across the floor, banking it off of the wall to avoid the lasers. 

Leaping over a table in the center of the vault, she bounded toward the door, avoiding the lasers like they weren’t even there. She landed at the door of the vault, picked up the case, and took a deep breath. 

“Okay,” she grinned, “now we can talk.”

A laser caught the edge of the briefcase, the alarm went off and the door immediately slammed shut.

“No!” Kara shouted, beating on the door.

“Dammit!” Lena cried, trying the access card on the door again. It didn’t work. _Fuck._ Security would be here soon.

“Lena! I don’t like small spaces!” She heard Kara yell through the door. The last thing she needed was for Kara to panic.

“Just keep breathing, Kara, you’re gonna be fine!”

Inside the vault, a hissing noise caught Kara’s attention and she turned to see a white gas flooding into the chamber. 

“Gas!! Gas, gas, gas!!” She screamed. “Lena there’s gas in here! I’ll be taking exclusively short breaths from now on!”

Lena felt her own panic begin to well up in her throat. However hurt and angry she was, she would be devastated if anything happened to Kara. She looked up and saw a vent that fed directly into the vault.

“Okay, hold on Kara! I’m gonna get you out of there!”

She looked around for something to climb on but there was nothing. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the door leading to the vault room to steady it, then used the door handle as a foothold, and climbed up, pulling herself up into the ventilation shaft.

“Look, Lena I don’t--I don’t want to regret not telling you everything I need to tell you! I’m not--I’m not a normal spy…”

Lena vaguely heard Kara continue on, but as she pressed forward down the chamber, between her own movements, the air in the shaft, and the sound of the gas hissing, she could no longer hear what she was saying.

She crawled down the metal passageway, moving as quickly as she could until she found the cutoff lever for the gas. She yanked down on it quickly, but it wouldn’t budge. She had no leverage in this tiny tunnel, but she rolled over onto her back and used her body mass to pull the handle down, and slowly but surely it turned to the off position.

Crawling back down the shaft and heading back to the air vent opening, she saw two of Jack’s security team punching in the code to the door of the vault. She could still hear Kara speaking on the other side of the door but she couldn’t hear what she was saying. 

Dropping out of the ceiling, she made short work of knocking both guards out, slamming the door to the vault room against their heads for good measure, then hit the Enter key on the keypad. 

As the door slid open, she saw Kara, tears pouring down her face, barely conscious from the gas, start to fall forward, and she rushed forward to catch her.

Just before she fell, Lena heard Kara slur out, “Lena...I love you.”

***

Back at The Tower, Lena was giving Haley the mission briefing (skipping over Kara’s love confession, which was still fixed firmly in her mind).

“Good work, Agent Luthor,” Haley commended. “How is the Asset doing?”

“She’ll live,” she replied sharply. “But I need to talk to you about Kara’s safety. It’s about me managing Kara and keeping her emotions in check so that the Intersect can work.” 

She paused. Haley regarded her curiously.

“I’m beginning to think I’m more a part of the problem than the solution, and I think a different agent might have more success in training her.”

Haley removed her glasses and sighed. “Let me be clear, Agent Luthor. I don’t know or want to know what happened between you two. But this is your job and Kara’s safety depends on you. So get over it, and teach her how to be a real spy. She listens to you, but she’s also an unstable element.”

Lena frowned. “Do you think she’s dangerous?”

“Very,” Haley replied seriously. “But she’s worth the risk. For the last two years, we’ve protected Kara from the world. But now, we have to protect the world from Kara.”

***

Lena sat quietly for a while, thinking over everything Haley had said. She was stuck here, sitting in her pain, working alongside Kara every day, because apparently Kara was incredibly dangerous? It was all so overwhelming, and even as a spy used to controlling her feelings, it pissed her off that she was expected to just be okay with this situation.

She heard stirring from across the room and looked up to see Kara staring at her.

“Well, time to train, Kara.” She said harshly. “Let’s go.”

Kara got up and followed her into the training room, where Lena picked up a bo staff and tossed another to Kara. “Lives are on the line. We need to get the 2.0 working right. If you want to be a real spy, you need to act like one.”

She attacked, striking her bo against Kara’s, who just barely defended herself, a scared look in her eye that turned to steel after her last words.

“I _am_ a real spy,” she gritted.

Lena spun, striking her staff against Kara’s and maneuvering it out of her hands and across the room. 

“A real spy would have flashed on the bo,” she replied, walking over to the display and grabbing another staff, tossing it to the blonde. “And been able to defend herself.”

She darted forward and attacked again, with Kara doing the same movement as before -- just barely fending her off, like she wasn’t even trying to flash.

Lena struck harder, faster, willing Kara to fight back. “Come on, Kara! The program is in the 2.0. You can do this!”

“It doesn’t work, okay? It’s not working! I’m--I’m--I’m too emotional! But if we could just talk really quick--”

Lena’s voice dropped low as she spoke, her tone dripping with pure acid. “You need to learn to ignore your emotions. Spies do _not_ have feelings! Feelings get you killed!”

Kara frowned at her, hurt stealing over her features.

“You need to learn to bury them in a place deep inside,” she continued before striking again with the bo, this time just stopping short of hitting Kara in the head. Kara flinched but didn’t try to defend herself.

The blonde pushed the staff away from her temple and stepped closer to her. “Lena...stop.”

Lena felt all of the emotions she had been shoving down bubbling back up, felt the thousands of tears she had shoved down threatening to spill out, felt the wall around her heart begin to chip and crack as Kara stepped closer to her.

She struck again, harder than before, grunting loudly with exertion. Kara dodged, again doing the bare minimum. It made her want to scream.

“Come on! Flash! Show me your attack skills!”

She struck again. Kara didn’t move. Lena pressed the tip of her bo to her throat. 

_“Come on, Kara! Flash! Show me!”_ She screamed in anger and frustration, her chest heaving, her eyes glaring.

Kara stood still for a moment, just watching her. Then she shook her head and dropped her bo. 

“No,” she whispered.

“Why not?!” She growled, still in attack mode.

“Because I don’t want to hurt you!” 

Kara turned to walk out of the room and Lena, filled with the pain of a lifetime of heartbreak, with the fury of a scorned killer, swung the bo staff around and swept Kara’s legs out from underneath her, knocking her flat on her back with a groan.

She stepped closer to her prone body and raised her chin high. 

“Don’t worry, Kara. You can’t.”

***

“So, Saint-Tropez doesn’t sound good to you?”

She looked back to see Sam standing in the entrance to the command center smirking at her. 

It was hours later, after she had fought with Kara, and she was finally starting to calm down enough to do her mission report. 

“On the contrary, it sounds incredible...but I think I’m gonna stay here, at least for now.”

Sam sauntered further into the room. “Hmm. Thought you’d say that.”

She set a flashdrive down on the desk next to Lena. “Here. A little going away present.”

Sliding it closer, she winked at the agent. “You should take a look at it.”

Lena rolled her eyes. “Okay. So I guess I’ll see you around, huh?”

Sam smiled. “Yeah, I’ll be back, I’m sure. Can’t stay away from you for too long.”

She winked again and pulled Lena into a hug, kissing her on the cheek. She pulled away, but didn't drop her hand until the last second. 

“Bye, babe.”

“Bye,” Lena replied with a smile.

She watched Sam walk away and missed her already. She was a tornado, chaos personified, but there was no one else she liked more in this world. 

Well, almost no one else.

She stared down at the flashdrive and frowned, her brow wrinkling curiously. Sticking it into the port on her computer, a file opened, and suddenly her screen was filled with Kara. 

It was video surveillance from inside the vault during the mission. She gasped lightly. Kara had been talking the whole time...now she could hear what she said without having to face the blonde.

She hesitantly pressed play.

_“Lena! I don’t--I don’t want to regret not telling you everything I need to tell you. Look, I’m not -- I'm not a normal spy. You know that. I know that. I’m just...I’m just a regular girl that works at a Nerd Herd. And the decision that I made in Prague…”_

Lena’s heart began to pound. This was it. What she had been avoiding. She considered turning the video off, but decided against it.

_“I know what it looks like. I know that it looks like I chose being a spy over--over being with you, but that’s not what happened! How I felt about you was real. Very,_ very _real! And I know that you know how I’ve felt about you for a long time. You know? But when Sam told me what you said...those three words that I’ve waited to hear for so long…”_

Lena felt the tears coming, she was powerless to stop them. She watched as Kara’s breathing became heavier, the effects of the gas working her over. Watched as the blonde slumped against the door, briefcase in hand. 

_“Look Lena, I know--I know you’re probably very hurt. You’re probably hurt that I didn’t run away with you in Prague. I get that and--and I’m so, so sorry. You have to know that you were_ everything _that I ever wanted. But how could I do that? How could I run away with you? How could I be with you, knowing what I’d be turning my back on? Knowing that what I had in my head could help so many people?”_

The tears were spilling down Lena’s cheeks now, unfiltered. 

_“And you’re the one who taught me that. That being a spy is about choosing something_ bigger _. It’s--it’s about putting aside your own personal feelings for the greater good, and that’s what I chose--”_

Her breaths were growing shallower, her voice pitching higher, coming out slurred, tears pouring down her cheeks. 

_“I chose to be a spy for my friends and my family and for you. I chose to be a spy because--”_

The doors slid open and she fell forward into Lena’s arms.

_“Lena...I love you.”_   
  


Lena sat in front of the screen, tears streaming down her cheeks and a hand over her mouth. Kara hadn't chosen the spy life over her at all. She had chosen to be the hero that Lena had always assured her she was.

She sniffled and stared at Kara's face, paused on the screen. 

So where did that leave them now?

***

“Hey babe, when are you coming home?” Kelly asked sweetly, tucking the phone into her neck while she poured a glass of wine.

“I got tied up in the ER tonight. Had a big bus accident come in, but I’m finally getting things under control,” Alex replied, checking the patient chart in front of her. “I just have one more patient and then I am all yours. I believe I owe you a foot massage.”

“Yes you do,” Kelly giggled, flexing her feet in the little soaking bin they were currently sitting in. “I’m getting them all ready for you.”

“I’ll be home soon baby,” Alex replied with a soft smile and hung up, pulling back the curtain of her final patient, and then quickly closing it. 

A petite blonde woman sat on the bed, and she turned to Alex with a smirk as the curtain closed. 

“So, what seems to be the problem?” Alex asked.

The blonde jumped out of the bed, raising a syringe, and drove it deep into Alex’s neck. Then everything went black.

***

Kara lay in bed that night, thinking over everything that had happened that day. Finding out Lena loved her, at least according to Sam, laying out all of her feelings in the vault, and then the bitter rejection in the training room.

She had hurt Lena badly and she wasn’t sure how she could even begin to fix it.

Taking out her phone, she opened her messages with Lena, the last 100 or so unanswered, and was just about to try texting her again when the doorbell rang. 

She jumped out of bed and headed toward the door, stepping over Kelly’s long abandoned foot bath, and pulled open the door. 

Lena stood on the stoop looking worried.

“Hey, I was just about to text you...is everything okay?”

Lena swallowed but said nothing for a moment.

Kara felt her stomach drop. Something was wrong.

“What? What is it?”

Lena stepped closer to her and put her mouth next to the blonde’s ear.

_“Alex was taken from the hospital tonight._ ”

Kara’s heart thudded to a stop and her breathing picked up the pace, panic washing over her. Lena pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so sorry." 

“Oh God,” said Kara. She trembled in Lena’s arms and her voice shook.

“We’re gonna find her, Kara. Don’t worry.”

Just then, Kelly padded into the kitchen wearing fuzzy socks, to refill her wine glass and saw them standing in the doorway. 

“Hey Kara, hey Lena,” she called. “You wouldn’t happen to know where my fiancée is, would you?”

Kara and Lena exchanged a worried glance.

“No, no I don’t,” Kara replied quietly.

It was the truth.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE DON'T SCREAM AT ME. I WILL FIX IT. 
> 
> Also, what's gonna happen with Alex?????? 😬😬😬😬


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex's predicament becomes clear and Kara comes to terms with the reality of their situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yall! I'm on a work trip and I haven't had a chance to fully edit this chapter, so if there are any mistakes, my apologies. But I didn't want to skip a week and I wasn't going to have any time to edit until mid week so... 😬
> 
> Anyway, hope it ain't shit!

Alex came to with the roar of National City in her ears. There was a black bag over her head, and she could feel the wind ruffling it over her face. Wherever she was was either very windy, or very high up. 

She tried to move, but found herself bound to her chair. It squeaked as she shifted, and she felt it roll sideways a little. High heeled footsteps approached her and a high pitched girly voice said, “Well then, let’s have a look at you.”

The bag was yanked off of her head and she found herself face to face with the blonde woman from the hospital, a big grin plastered on her face. She was quite pretty -- in a maniacal kind of way. Alex tried to look over both shoulders to see where she was, but her movements were restricted by the zipties keeping her arms in place.

“Where am I? Who are you?” 

The woman’s heels clicked as she approached. “My name is Alice, and…” She turned Alex’s chair around and rolled her toward the edge of the building, until she was overlooking the busy city street thirty stories below. “...This is where you are.”

Alex began to pant, panic rising in her chest.  _ What the fuck was happening? _

Alice pulled her back from the edge and spun her back around. “Now, I trust you’re feeling alright? Not too many bumps and bruises? After all, I’m going to need you in tip-top shape!”

“Need me? Need me for what?” 

“Nothing too difficult, at least not for one of the CIA’s best,” Alice replied with a smirk.

“No no no, you’ve got me mixed up with somebody else,” Alex cried, “I’m just a doctor!”

“We know exactly who you are Alex. So, please, tell me…” She kicked Alex’s chair backward again, sending her rolling toward the ledge. “What’s it like being a world class spy?”

***

Kara bounced up and down on her toes, running her fingers through her wild hair over and over again.  _ Alex was gone. Alex had been taken. This was all her fault.  _

“Kara, stop freaking out,” Hank ordered.

“Oh I’m not freaking out,” she replied, the quiver in her tone apparent. “I’ll tell you why I’m not freaking out. That would require me to be overreacting and I don’t think it’s technically possible for me to overreact to my sister being KIDNAPPED!”

“We’re doing the best we can, Kara,” Hank replied. “Why don’t you go upstairs, go to work, and we’ll call you as soon as we have any news.”

Kara grimaced, running her hands over her face. What was she going to do? How could she go to work right now? What was she going to tell Kelly? She looked up to the surveillance cameras outside her apartment and saw Kelly pacing in front of the door on her phone.

“Look at that, Kelly is making her 50th call to Alex within the hour, in addition to the 20 that she’s made to me already today! She--she’s losing it!”

She turned to Lena, who was typing furiously with an earpiece in. 

“Wh--what am I supposed to tell her?”

Lena sighed. They’d been at this for hours, and they were no closer to finding Alex than they had been a few hours ago, and Kara’s panicking was not helping.

“Honestly Kara, I think the best thing you can do is to just calm down.”

Kara stared at her in disbelief. “Here’s a little tip: If you really want someone to calm down, never tell them to calm down, because it  _ doesn’t work! They don’t calm down!! _ ”

She tried to get ahold of herself, to remember that this was Lena she was screaming at, and took a deep breath. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m calming down.” She took more deep breaths. “I’m sorry. Here comes the calm. I will sooooon...be calm,” her voice broke on the last word, as the panic showed no signs of dissipating.

“Not working! I’m not calming down! I’ll tell you what, I’ve got an idea. I’m gonna go to work and you guys call me the very SECOND that you hear  _ anything _ about Alex.”

She huffed and ran out of the base. Maybe she could distract herself at work. She knew her panic wasn’t helping Hank and Lena.

She paced around the store for the next hour, ignoring any customers who came up to speak to her. Finally, at the one hour mark, she had an idea.

Pulling out her phone, she called Lena and left a message. “Hey, Lena it’s me. Had an idea: Delta Force. Have you called them yet? If not, call me back with their number. Ok, bye.”

She hung up just as Brainy and Nia came up to her. 

“Ah, just in time,” said Nia. “We need that big brain of yours, Kara. Brainy is  _ dead wrong _ about something.”

“Well, that’s kind of his default setting, isn’t it?”

Brainy opened his mouth to retort, when an old Asian woman called out to her. “Excuse me miss, I need your help with something. I understand you’re having a big sale on HD monitors?”

Kara did not have the time, nor the bandwidth for this. “Uh, yes we are. Actually, Nia or Querl would be happy to assist--” but as she turned around, Brainy and Nia had disappeared. She sighed.  _ Of course. _

She looked up and saw Lena run into the store. “Lena!”

The Asian woman cried out, “Hey!”

As Kara made her way to the door where Lena was, Nia accosted her again. “Seriously, Kara, it’s an emergency.”

“Young lady! Are you even listening to me?” The Asian woman called from behind her. She began yelling furiously in Thai and Kara flashed on the foreign language. Suddenly, she was able to understand everything the woman was saying.

_ “Don’t walk away from me! This is why I prefer Best Buy!” _

Without even thinking, Kara began responding in perfect Thai. 

_ “My sister was just captured by evil people! If you don’t get away from me right now, it is possible that I might hurt you! RUN AWAY!!” _

The woman stared at her in wide eyed shock, turned, and ran from the building. 

Kara shook her head to clear it. “Excuse me, I’m so sorry! That’s not what I meant to say!” She called after the woman.

Turning back, she saw Nia and Brainy still behind her.

“Impressive,” said Nia, “now if Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal got into a fight, who would win?”

Kara stared at her in disbelief. “This is your big question?”

“Bear in mind,” Nia continued, “that Master Seagal’s fighting style is Aikido, like so...” She did her best karate chop impressions, sounds and all, and karate chopped Kara in the arm. 

In her fragile mental state, Kara’s wired brain took it as an attack and she flashed immediately, performing a perfect circle kick, striking Nia right in the temple. 

She fell to the ground with a thud and Kara stared down in horror. Lena grabbed her arm, and pulled her to the door.

“I think she’ll live, but we need to get you out of here.”

As she led Kara toward the door, she whispered, “We have a lead on Alex. The last patient she saw was a Leviathan operative.”

“What?! What---Lena,  _ Leviathan? _ Oh my God, this is all my fault. I’m the one that got them involved in all of this. They’re probably torturing her for information about me as we speak!”

Lena grabbed her hands to try to ground her. “No there is no reason to think that.”

“Yeah you’re right, there are hundreds of other nightmare scenarios far worse!”

Lena looked up over her shoulder and saw Alex stagger in through the doors, looking disheveled, but intact.

“Uh, Kara?”

“No you don’t understand, I’m responsible for this! I killed my sister!”

“Kara!” Lena turned her around and pointed to Alex. 

Kara’s shoulders dropped and she ran over to her sister, pulling her into the tightest bear hug she could. Alex gripped her back. “I need to talk to you,” she whispered.

“Yeah of course, but are you okay? Tell me you’re okay.”

Alex nodded, closing her eyes. “I’m okay, but...but I have a problem, and I’m not sure what to do about it.” She looked at Lena like she didn’t want her to overhear what she was about to say, and in that moment, Kara realised that she was finally going to have to tell her the truth. It was all going to come out today.

She took a deep breath and said, “Why...why don’t we go somewhere to talk?” She looked at Lena, who nodded, and led them over to the Wienerlicious.

“Kara, I’m--I’m not sure that this is the best place to have this talk,” said Alex, glancing at Lena. 

“Trust me,” Kara said, as Lena punched in the code to the entrance of The Tower. “This is the best place.”

The door hissed open, and Kara led her sister down into the secret CIA base.

Alex looked around with wide eyes as Kara and Lena led her down the stairs and into the command center. “Wh--Kara what is going on?”

Lena turned to Kara. “I’ll--I’ll let you guys talk for a minute.” And then she walked out of the room.

Kara turned back to Alex, wondering where to begin.

“Kara, what is this place? What is going on?!”

She drew in a deep breath and offered Alex a chair. “Alex, this is a secret CIA base of operations for a joint CIA-NSA taskforce. Alex, I’m--I’m a spy. And I have been for a while now.”

Alex stared at her incredulously. “What?”

Kara sighed. “It’s a long story, and I really wish I could tell you everything right now, but the headline is: I’m a spy, and the people that took you? They’re part of an organisation we’ve been hunting for a while.”

Alex shook her head. “We?”

“Me, Lena, and Hank,” she replied. “They’re my handlers, they protect me -- protect us.”

Alex rubbed her face, clearly having trouble processing all of the information being thrown at her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“I couldn’t. I wasn’t allowed to. Everything about this taskforce is top secret. That’s why I still work in the Nerd Herd -- to maintain a cover identity to keep my spy life a secret.”

Alex sat silently, staring off into space.

“You have to believe me, Alex, I’ve wanted to tell you for so long. It killed me not to. I hated lying to you!”

Alex said nothing, just sat with her hand over her mouth, thinking.

Finally, she seemed to come to an answer. “No.”

“No?” Kara repeated in confusion.

“No, you can’t do this. You can’t be a spy! It’s too dangerous! I mean, I was dangled off a building just because they  _ thought _ I was a spy! What would they do to you for  _ actually  _ being one?”

Kara shook her head. “Alex, I--I can’t just stop. This is my job.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” Asked Alex, staring her straight in the eye. “You’re my only family, Kara. I can’t lose you.”

Kara sat silently, more than a little hurt. This is not how she saw this conversation going. “I--I thought you’d be proud of me.”

Alex’s eyes softened. “Kara, I--”

But she was cut off by Hank and Lena entering the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we really need to be briefed on what happened.”

Alex turned to Kara and met her eyes, her own full of so many unspoken thoughts. “We’ll talk about this later.”

***

“From what she has told us, we can conclude that the woman Alex was with is Alice Kane, the head of a Leviathan cell in National City.”

The four of them sat around the table, while General Haley debriefed them. Alex sat rigidly in her chair, staring at the general in awe.

“She has tried to recruit several of our agents,” Haley continued.

“She knows everything about me, Kara,” said Alex softly. “Kelly, too.”

“Everything except who the real spy in the family is,” said Lena with a smirk.

“Well that’s an easy mistake to make,” Hank quipped. “One of them looks like a spy and the other one looks...like Kara.”

Even Kara had to agree with that. Alex did have a sort of special ops, secret agent look about her.

Alex produced an odd looking black, circular smart device from her pocket. “She gave me this, told me she would contact me with instructions.”

“It’s a Leviathan communications device,” Haley explained to their puzzled faces. “It works off of a closed network. But the NSA has recently developed new technology to crack it. Now we can put it into use.”

“Alright,” said Kara brightly, clapping her hands together. “Fantastic news, sounds like a plan.” Standing up, she grabbed Alex’s hand. “I’m gonna get Alex back home before Kelly has an aneurysm.”

“You can’t take her home quite yet,” Haley cut in sharply. “We still have to talk about how we’re going to use Alex.”

Kara stared up at her in shock. “Excuse me, what?! Oh no no no, no one’s using Alex! There’ll be no using of her anymore. No more fun spy games for her...forever!”

“Using Alex is our best option,” Haley replied in a tone that conveyed that she thought it was ridiculous Kara didn’t see this. “Alice won’t go to her superiors with Alex’s identity until she definitively knows whether she has turned her or burned her.”

“When Alice contacts her, Alex will do what she says, just long enough for us to track her, find her, and bring her in,” Hank added.

Alex gripped Kara’s arm. “You mean I have to do what she says?!”

“No, you don’t,” Kara replied, then turned back to the room, “No, she doesn’t! This is my family we’re talking about here. Come on!”

She looked at Lena specifically, who had stayed quiet through all of this. Lena knew and understood just how important her family was to her. Surely she would have her back?

“It’s the only way to keep her safe,” Lena replied apologetically. She turned her attention to Alex. “Alex, we’ll be there every step of the way to keep you out of danger.”

Kara turned back to Alex, who was looking at some point on the floor. Turning her gaze up to her sister, she finally said, “If you tell me you can get me through this, I trust you.”

Kara swallowed and looked back to Lena, who nodded reassuringly. She turned back to her sister. “I will, Alex. I promise.”

***

Alex trudged through the courtyard, fiddling with her keys in an exhausted panic. What was she going to tell Kelly about where she’d been? Kara had said to just keep it simple, and clearly she was a better liar than Alex had previously thought, but Alex was not a good liar. And she didn’t want to lie to Kelly.

“Alex, is that you?!”

She heard the door open and Kelly came bounding out into the courtyard and threw her arms around her fiancée. “Oh thank God, I was so worried!”

“Yeah babe, I’m fine!”

Kelly pulled back from the hug and kissed her deeply, before pulling back to look at her fully. “Why didn’t you call?”

“Well,” she started, trying to think fast, “after I got off the overnight shift, I decided to go for a run to clear my head, in Krypto Park...no cell service there.”

Kelly furrowed her brow and Alex continued quickly before she could ask any questions. “So...I’m running...and I hear a noise...in a tree...it was, uh, a cat. A hurt cat. I had to see if it needed medical attention. Then I realised….”

She trailed off and looked at Kelly, who was giving her a look of obvious disbelief. She was not buying this at all. But Alex had dug too far into the story to quit now.

“It’s a bear!”

“What’s a bear? The cat’s a bear?!” Kelly asked, faking complete belief.

“Yeah! The cat’s a bear! It’s a bear, and it...jumps out at me and starts attacking me! And it’s like...it’s angry at me for some reason, this bear! And it’s just like….rawwrrrr!!” She roared and made claws with her hands and felt a little more of her self-respect slip away.

“Oh my God!!” Kelly cried, slapping her hands to her cheeks in faux shock. “You were attacked by a bear!”

“Yeah! And I---I cut off its head!”  _ Oh my God, you fucking moron _ . “Yeah babe, I...decapitated a bear. But it was self-defense in order to survive. I’m just glad you weren’t there to see it. It was really grisly.”

Kelly nodded in fake sympathy and then dropped the act. “Are you kidding me? You really expect me to believe this? Because, what, you think I’m an idiot? Is that it?!”

_ Shit. _

“No! No, no, no, of course not babe, that’s not what I think!” She scrambled around, looking for a better explanation. God, she was a fucking terrible liar. 

At that moment, Winn strolled into the courtyard in his Nerd Herd uniform, waved to them, and hopped through Kara’s window, and an idea formed.

“It was Winn. He was arrested earlier this morning in Krypto Park. He was drunk. Super drunk. Really ‘blotto’, the officer’s words, not mine. He was in bad shape. He wet himself. Also exposed himself.”

Kelly’s jaw dropped. 

_ Okay, might have gone a little overboard there. _

“Anyway, I was down at NCPD nearly all day, talking to an old officer friend of mine, trying to get the charges dropped, so…”

“Oh my gosh, really?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah,” she replied, relieved Kelly seemed to believe her. “It was a sad sight. I was trying to keep it on the down low. Didn’t want to embarrass him.”

Kelly shook her head. “Well, I’m glad you’re alright. And that you’re home.” She pulled her through the door. “I believe you owe me a foot massage,” she said with a grin.

***

Later that night, Hank and Lena were prepping for Alice’s call, while Kara paced around the room anxiously.

“I can’t believe Leviathan thinks that Alex is a spy! I mean, it’s crazy! This is crazy. When do you think she’s gonna call? What do you think she’s gonna say? What do you think  _ we _ do when she does call?”

Lena inhaled deeply, closing her eyes for a moment. Kara’s panic was not helping and it was starting to get on her nerves, even if she sympathised.

“Kara, what you need to remember is that Alex will be looking to you as her handler, and you need to remember what it felt like to be scared and new to this.”

“Heh, like she’ll ever forget that,” Hank grunted. “Think of it this way: on this mission, Alex is you, and you’re her,” he said, nodding to Lena. “So be her, Kara.”

Kara looked back at Lena, remembered how she had protected her, calmed her down, kept her safe when all of this started and immediately felt completely inadequate as Alex’s handler. “Well, maybe Alice will never call.”

A rapid knock on the door sounded out, followed by a quiet, panicked, “Guys! Guys it’s me, are you in there?”

Kara flung open the door, and Alex stared at her, eyes wide and terrified. “She called,” she said quickly, clutching a package to her chest.

“What’s that?” Hank asked, gesturing to the package.

Alex shook her head. “I don’t know, I found it on my front step. It’s from Alice. I’m supposed to open it right away. She’s gonna call again in about five minutes.”

Kara pulled her into Hank’s apartment and sat down on the couch next to her, opening up the package that Alex brought with her. Inside was a small case. Before she had a chance to open it, Alex’s Leviathan communicator bleeped and she jumped out of her seat.

“It’s okay,” Kara said, pulling her back down onto the couch. “Answer it.”

Alex sat down gingerly and picked up the device, hitting a button on the screen. Alice’s girly voice came flitting out of the speaker.

_ “From now on, Alex, I will speak to you through the earpiece included in the package, and you will speak to me through the watch we sent. Now, put in the earpiece and put on the watch.” _

Kara opened the case and pulled out the items, handing them to Alex. “Par for the course,” she whispered reassuringly, “just do what she says.”

Alex nodded quickly and put the earpiece in, narrating to Alice as she went. A whirring noise came from it, followed by a click, and Alex gasped as the device attached itself to the shell of her ear.

_ “Good, now we can track you on our own GPS network.” _

Alex looked up at Kara in fear.

Kara shook her head calmly. “It’s fine,” she whispered, “Standard operating procedure.”

_ “Be at Smoak Tower downtown in one hour. Come alone. Oh, and Alex? The earpiece is also an explosive device. Remove it, or deviate from my instructions in any way and I will detonate it, ruining that lovely face of yours.” _

The line went dead and the group looked around at each other in horror. Now Alex was being ordered around by Leviathan with an explosive device wired to her ear. 

This was not good.

***

Fifty-five minutes later, Alex was standing out in front of Smoak Tower waiting for Alice to give her instructions.

“Kara? Kara, can you hear me?”

“Yeah sis, I’m right here.” Kara was sitting in the van with Hank and Lena, trying to keep her cool.

Alex felt a little bit of relief at her voice in her ear. “And you’re sure they can’t hear me talking to you?”

“They can only hear you if you push the button on their watch. An open bug would be far too easy to trace. I labeled both watches so you don’t get confused.”

Alex looked down at her wrists and saw the one on her left wrist said ‘ **GOOD GUYS** ’ on a piece of tape, while the one on her right wrist said ‘ **BAD GUYS** ’. She couldn’t help but smile. Kara thought of everything.

“As soon as Alice calls, Hank is going to start tracking the signal,” said Lena, “As soon as we’ve tracked her location, we’re going to bring her in and then you’re done.”

Alex let out a breath of relief. “Okay...okay good. Kara, this gonna work, right?”

Kara bit her lip nervously. She certainly _ hoped  _ it would work. Lena seemed to sense her anxiety and covered the mic.

  
“Remember, if you freak out, she’s gonna freak out.”

Kara nodded and leaned into the mic. “This is  _ absolutely _ gonna work. Everything is fine. I am  _ very _ confident.”

Lena gave her a thumbs up and small smile.

A tone bleeped in Alex’s ear, followed by Alice’s voice.  _ “Alex, are you ready to begin?” _

Alex took a deep breath, checked to make sure she was speaking into the right watch and replied, “Ready.”

Inside the van, Hank began tracing the call.

_ “Good. There’s a penthouse on the 12th floor. Go there. The building has extensive security, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. We’ll talk again once you’re there.” _

She hung up. Hank smacked the tabletop in the van. “Damn. She’s close by. Wasn’t on the line long enough to get an exact location. We need another call.”

Kara’s blood ran cold. “Another call?! Wh--are you kidding me? No way! She has an explosive earpiece stuck in her head!”

“Kara, our target is Alice,” Lena cut in, her tone bordering on annoyed. “We have to get her to save Alex.”

Kara rolled her neck and breathed in deeply. “Fine. Okay, you get her, and I’ll get Alex up to the 12th floor.” 

She turned to the mic. “Sis, head inside the building and wait, I’ll be right in.”

_ “Wait?! Wait for what?!” _

“Wait for me,” she replied, pulling on her jacket and climbing out of the van.

***

Alex paced around the marble lobby of Smoak Tower waiting for Kara. “Kara,” she whispered into her watch, “where are you?!”

_ “I’m on my way, sis.” _

“Excuse me, ma’am?”

Alex turned around and found herself face to face with building security. She looked down to his belt where a gun sat holstered next to a keycard.

“Are you here to see someone in the building?” He asked, stepping closer, his hands on his hips.

“Well, uh, yeah...kinda,” she stammered out. “Here to meet a friend...my friend...Kara…”

“Does this Kara work here?”

“She… _ could  _ work here,” she said, nodding and looking anywhere but at the man. “She might--”

“It’s okay ma’am,” the guard said, raising a calming hand. “I’m building security. My name is Julius. What’s the problem? It’s okay, you can tell me.”

A  _ fwhip  _ sound rang out, and then Julius slumped forward into Alex’s arms. Alex lowered him to the floor and looked up to find Kara across the room, pointing a gun in her direction.

“Kara! What the fuck?!  _ You just killed Julius!!!” _

Kara walked toward her looking baffled. “What? Killed?! I would never--are you serious?! This is a  _ tranq gun! _ He’s gonna be fine, come on!”

Grabbing the keycard off of Julius’ belt, the pair ran to the elevator and Kara swiped the card, punching the button for the 12th floor. As they rose higher in the building, she could hear Alex breathing heavily next to her.

“What do you think is up there?” She asked quietly. “Something pretty gnarly, huh?”

Kara checked her clip and shook her head. “It’s best not to speculate. I mean, nine times out of ten--” She tilted her head back and forth. “--Well, maybe seven times out of ten, you get yourself all worked up over nothing.”

The lift dinged and the doors slid open, revealing an empty hallway. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

They moved further down the hallway and suddenly a group of suited men came around the corner and spotted them. 

“Hey! You can’t be up here!” One shouted as they all reached for their weapons.

Immediately Kara flashed, shoving Alex down a side hallway, out of harm’s way, and quickly tranq’d the entire group. Another group came around the corner at the opposite end of the hallway, and she spun, quickly taking them down as well.

Alex stepped out and took in the eight men now lying unconscious on the ground. “You’re incredible! Was that your spy training?”

“Duck Hunt, actually,” Kara joked.

Alex’s earpiece bleeped and she pointed to it.

_ “Alex?” _

“Yes, Alice?”

_ “Good, you’re alive! Down the hall to your left is an unmarked door. The lock opens via retina scan. Cut out one of the guards’ eyes and use it to open the door.” _

Alex turned to Kara in horror.

“What?”

“We gotta cut out one of these guys’ eyes for the scan!” She shook her head quickly. “I took an oath, Kara, I can’t cut out a man’s eye!”

Kara thought for a moment. “I’ve got an idea!”

They dragged one of the security guards to the scan pad and hoisted him up, with Kara dragging his eyelid up so that it could register his retina, as Alex shoved his face at the scanner. 

“Jeez this guy is heavy!” Alex complained, shoving his face into the wall again.

“Yeah well, bad guys don’t count carbs, sis,” she grunted back, sighing in relief when the door next to the scanner slid open and they could drop the guard to the floor. 

Stepping through the entrance, Kara frowned. They seemed to be standing in a server room of some kind, but that wasn’t what made her frown. What made her frown was the big CIA decal on the floor of the room right in front of the door.

“Lena,” she said into her watch, “we have reached the 12th floor, but what the heck is going on?! This is a CIA facility!”

There was no answer from the van. 

“Lena? Hello?!”

***

Down in the van, Lena was trying to communicate with Kara, but all she was getting was static. Something must have jammed their signal.

“I lost her,” she said to Hank. He was staring at the computer screen which was almost done triangulating Alice’s location. It bleeped a second later. 

“I’ve got her location, she’s--” He stopped abruptly, looking confused. “She’s right here.”

They both climbed toward the van and looked out the windshield just as Alice strode by the van, heels clacking on the pavement.

“That’s her,” Lena said, loading her gun. “Let’s go.”

Hank went to grab the door handle, when the doors to the van locked and the screens went black, but for the one banner across all screens that said  **LOCKDOWN MODE ACTIVATED.**

“What the fuck?”

One of the screens blinked on and General Haley appeared onscreen.

“Agent Luthor, Colonel Henshaw, stand down.”

“General, we have a visual on Alice, she just walked past!” Hank growled at the screen. “She’s heading inside the building.”

“I’ve just received new mission information, Colonel. Your new directive is to stand down.”

“General,” Lena cut in. “Kara has breached the 12th floor and she says it’s some kind of CIA base. If that’s true, then this is some kind of a setup!”

“Yes,” replied the general, “that’s exactly what this is.” 

The screen blinked off.

***

Kara was still trying to make contact with Lena and Hank when Alex’s earpiece bleeped again.

_ “Excellent work, Alex. You’re almost finished. There’s a man in the office at the end of the hall. Find him...and kill him.” _

Alex turned to Kara and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Kara, Alice says there’s a man at the end of the hall and she wants me to find him and kill him!”

Kara grabbed Alex’s trembling hands and spoke calmly. “No one is going to kill anyone, okay? Just calm down and stay close.”

She bent low and crept forward down the hall, Alex imitating her. Finally, they came to the office in question and she saw a man standing in the dim lighting of one desk lamp, his back to her.

Kara motioned for Alex to stay outside of the room and entered slowly.

“Excuse me, sir? Excuse me. I know this is a little awkward...but don’t move. Oh--but also don’t be afraid. My name is--”

“Kara,” the man replied in a British accent, turning to face her, and Kara saw who it was.

“William?” She replied in shock. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in D.C.?”

“I was,” he replied, continuing to type something into the computer. “I’m not anymore.”

“What is going on, Dey? What do they want? Why do they need Alex?”

“They don’t  _ need  _ anything. They already have everything, it’s as simple as that.”

Kara wanted to punch him for speaking in riddles, but before she could shout at him to talk like a human being, he spoke again.

“Alice will be here any minute. We’ve gotta do this.” He pulled a gun out of his desk and walked around it to stand in front of Kara.

“Wait, Alice is coming here? You know she wants me to kill you, right? But don’t worry, I’m--I’m not gonna do that. However, we do need a plan.”

“I’ve got one.” William handed her the pistol. “You’re gonna kill me, Kara.”

Kara stared at him in horror as he began feeling around his chest for something. “What?! No! No, no, no. I don’t kill people! Okay? I have rules against such things.”

William ignored her and continued to press on his chest until he found what he was looking for. “Shoot me here, Kara. Try to be precise.”

“Are you listening to anything I’m saying right now?” Kara asked, as he pulled a small container containing a red capsule from his pocket. “I don’t kill people. I don’t shoot them. Maybe with a tranq gun -- I’ll tranq anybody you want -- but a gun gun? I hate gun guns!”

William swallowed the pill and looked her dead in the eye. “Listen to me. If you don’t kill me, you and Alex are as good as dead.”

“Well, I’m not gonna do it!”

_ “Kara,” _ William snarled, grabbing the hand holding the pistol and pressing the barrel into the spot on his chest. “I have to die,  _ now! _ Leviathan knows too much, there’s no other way! So just do it! Shoot me!”

Kara looked him in the eyes, then down to the gun in her hand, the way it was pressed into his chest. She watched him steel himself, prepared for the shot. Her finger grazed over the trigger and she took a deep breath---

“I can’t! I can’t do it!”

William rolled his eyes in annoyance and grabbed the gun from her, pointing it at himself and pressing it into the space over his heart again.

“Afterward, put the gun in Alex’s hands. Then hide. When Alice leaves, open this.” 

He handed her a small manila envelope and steeled himself again. 

“The truth is,” he said with a chuckle, “I hate guns too.

Then he pulled the trigger with a loud bang.

Kara stared down at his body on the ground, at the red wound leaking out of his chest. Alex ran into the room at the sound of the gunshot.

“Kara!”

She stared down at William in horror, then looked up at Kara, revulsion clear in her eyes.

“No! Alex, I didn’t--that wasn’t me, I swear!”

Alex dropped to the ground next to William and felt for a pulse. “He’s dead!”

She picked up the gun lying next to Williams hand and examined it closely. “Kara, this is  _ not  _ a tranq gun!”

Kara opened her mouth to explain, but she heard the door slide open, followed by the sound of heels clicking down the hallway. Alice was coming.

Kara darted over to Alex and put her hands on her shoulders, breathing quickly. “Okay, listen to me. Remember,  _ you  _ shot him.”

Alex opened her mouth to speak, but Kara jumped over William’s prone body and hid behind the desk, crouching as low as she could. Alex straightened up and tried not to look as terrified as she felt.

Alice stepped into the room, took in William’s body on the ground and Alex standing rigidly in the middle of the room. She strode over to Alex and motioned for her to hand her the gun, which Alex quickly obeyed. “Take off the watch,” she ordered, and bent down to feel for William’s nonexistent pulse. 

Alex scrambled to remove the watch, peeling off the ‘ **BAD GUYS** ’ sticker quickly. 

Alice stood back up and took the watch from her. “Well done. Cute  _ and _ talented.” She tapped on her Leviathan communicator a few times and the earpiece on Alex’s ear clicked off. Alice slid it off of her ear, brushing her finger down Alex’s jaw as she removed it.

“What a catch,” she smirked. Alex forced out a laugh. 

“Lose the body, keep the phone,” Alice instructed with a smile. “We’ll be in touch. Welcome to Leviathan, Alex.”

And with that, she strode out of the room.

Alex waited until she heard the whooshing of the door at the end of the hallway before she let out the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding, doubling over as the events of the night washed over her.

Kara jumped up from behind the desk and ran over to her, rubbing her back. She tore open the envelope Dey had given her and read it quickly.

“‘Med kit in desk. The pill was Amiodarone. Save me.’”

“Amiodarone?” Alex asked. “Amiodarone stops your heart, but only momentarily. If it’s a clean shot I think I can save him!”

Kara grabbed the med kit and Alex pulled out a bottle of Epinepherin and a syringe, loading it and jamming it into his chest. William’s eyes shot open and he struggled for breath, coughing hard.

“Thanks Alex,” he gasped. “I owe you one.”

***

Kara sent Alex home and went back to The Tower with William, where his gunshot wound was stitched up and wrapped.

“Are you okay,” Lena asked him quietly as he sat down at the table in the command center with them. 

He flexed his shoulder and grimaced. “Should be fine. Just in a little pain.”

Kara rolled her eyes at his machismo. “Great, good, glad you’re all stitched up. Now maybe you can tell us what is going on? We all thought you were in D.C. and now Leviathan wants to kill you and you faked your death? I mean, what the hell, Dey?”

William nodded. “The long and the short of it is: Leviathan wants me dead. I’ve been collecting intel and breaking up their organisation for the better part of five years. I know too much about them. Now that they think I’m dead, they’ll be more likely to let their guard down. And that’s how we’ll beat them. I  _ was _ in D.C., meeting with some people in the intelligence community that I know I can trust, that  _ aren’t  _ compromised by Leviathan, putting this plan into action. When I got wind of Alex’s involvement, I realised it was the perfect setup and flew back out here.”

Kara stared at him. This was all a plan. This was insane!

“Okay, but even with all of that, Alice is still out there which means my sister is still in danger!”

“Not for long,” William replied, rising from his chair and pacing around the room. “As you’ve seen, Leviathan operates through a network of decentralised cells. If we catch Alice, there’s a good chance we can contain Alex’s identity. She’s a bona fide mole in their operation.”

He stood still with his hands on his hips and glanced up at Kara. “In order to save her, we have to use her.”

Kara looked up at him in shock. “What?! No! No way. I’ve already been over this. Alex is out of the spy game for good!”

Lena spoke up from across the table. “Kara, as long as Alice is out there, Alex has a target on her back.”

“She’s right, Kara,” Hank added.

She looked back and forth between them. “Hank, Lena,  _ please!  _ Explain the risks to him!”

“The risks are greater to Alex if we don’t use her,” Lena explained. “Alice would sooner kill her than let her go.”

Kara stared at her in disappointment as her heart fell. “Well, I don’t care. She isn’t a spy.”

William bent over the table, placing his hands flat on the top and said in a patronising voice, “Well, Kara, then I guess the question is...do you have a better plan?”

Kara stared at him in silence, rage burning low in her gut as his condescending tone echoed in her mind. She folded her hands and set her chin on them. The Leviathan communicator in the middle of the table caught her eye and an idea began to form in her mind.

***

Kara looked up as Alex walked into the Nerd Herd, looking understandably jumpy. She leapt over the desk to meet her. 

“Hey, I got your message, what’s up?” Alex asked, then her face fell. “Please don’t say another mission. I can’t take this anymore. I’m freaking out!”

“No no, no more missions,” Kara reassured her. “I’m sorry that I put you through all of this, but I promised you that I would take care of it and I am. Now did you bring the phone?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, pulling the Leviathan communicator out of her pocket and handing it over. “Please take it. I don’t want it anywhere near me.”

Kara smiled sadly. “I am sorry, Alex. And we will talk about all of this, I promise.”

Alex nodded but didn’t meet her eyes. “I gotta go. Kelly will be off work soon and I--I really need to be with her right now.”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned away from her sister and walked out the door.

Kara walked to the backroom and began working on the communicator, dismantling and rewiring some components. As her computer program worked on reconfiguring the frequencies, she thought over her predicament with Alex. 

The two of them had never had an issue like this. They were all each other had in the world for the longest time, and they had become so close through the mutual loss of their parents when Kara was 15 and Alex only just barely 18. Alex had stepped up to the plate and taken care of her, working two jobs and yet still managing to get a full ride scholarship to med school. No doubt Alex had taken this secret as a betrayal of the highest order, and Kara honestly couldn’t blame her. She just hoped she would give her the chance to explain everything and then maybe she would be able to see why she had to keep her spy life a secret. Maybe all of this with Alice would be a perfect example of why she had needed to be kept in the dark. 

The communicator bleeped as the program reached 100% and she quickly activated the device.

A few seconds later and the high-pitched, girly tones of Alice Kane came from the speaker.  _ “How did you open this channel? Who is this?” _

Kara steeled herself and shoved her nerves down. This was for Alex, to keep her safe. “This is the spy that killed Agent Dey.”

_ “...This is not Alex Danvers,” _ Alice said, a sneer in her tone.

Kara swallowed hard. “Yeah, well you’ve been dealing with the wrong spy. Alex was a decoy. I’m the one that put that bullet through Agent Dey’s chest last night. I’m the spy that you’re looking for, and  _ I _ am in charge of this mission now.”

***

Kara waited until the Nerd Herd was closed and then snuck back in from the hidden entrance to The Tower. Alice would be arriving soon, and she needed to make sure her backup was in place.

Hank and Lena might be annoyed that she went behind their backs, but she knew they’d understand and have hers. She sat down behind the Nerd Herd desk and dialed Lena.

_ “What’s up, Kara?” _

“Hey, hey Lena, uh...it’s Kara, obviously,” she rambled. “Don’t be mad at me, but I may or may not have called Alice on the Leviathan phone so that she would track me here to the Nerd Herd. It’s a trap--my trap!”

Lena stood in the middle of the command center with her palm over her forehead. “You told Alice to go to the Nerd Herd?!”

Kara looked up and saw Alice approaching the door with four thugs with her. “Oh my god! Oh my god, she’s here! It worked! Okay, grab Hank and get up here so we can take them out!”

Lena turned to face Henshaw, motioning for him to get the guns. “Kara, what were you--”

The phone was snatched out of her hand by William, who put it to his ear and said, “Not very smart, Kara. This is not how I do business. You start things on your own, you better be prepared to finish them on your own. Good luck!”

Then he hung up.

“What are you doing?!” Lena cried, grabbing her phone back. 

“Without us she doesn’t stand a chance!” Hank added, staring at him in shock.

“She’s going to start to panic and then she’s not going to be able to perform properly!” Lena shouted, eyes wide.

“Yeah, that kind of thing happens to a lot of guys,” William sneered. “Or so I’ve been told,” he added smugly.

Lena scoffed at him.

“Besides, I’m kind of curious about what her plan is.”

“ _ We  _ were her plan!” Lena yelled.

“Well, now you’re not. You can’t keep coddling her. If she wants to be a real spy, let her prove herself. Let’s see her plan.”

***

Kara watched in horror as the Leviathan thugs forced the door to the Nerd Herd open.

This wasn’t part of the plan! In her plan, the calvary would already be in place to take the group down, not leaving her to die on her own. William was a hell of a team leader, she thought angrily.

She ducked down behind the counter as Alice and the henchmen stepped into the store. She had to think fast. Grabbing the intercom mic, she turned it on.

“Hello Alice. Welcome to the National City Nerd Herd. Please proceed directly to the Home Theater Room. I would suggest going through the HD monitors aisle. But beware...you break it...you buy it.”

_ Oh my god, you stupid fuck.  _

A large pair of boots stepped in front of her and she looked up to see one of Alice’s thugs standing over her.

“Oh,” she said, letting out a terrified, shaky breath. “Hello, sir. The store is closed at the moment, but if you want to come back in the morning, we’ll be open around--”

The man yanked her to her feet and dragged her out from behind the counter.

***

“You’re signing her death warrant, you know that, don’t you?” Hank asked, glancing at Dey over his shoulder as they watched the events play out over the surveillance cameras in The Tower.

“Ye of little faith,” said William, not looking up from his computer.

Lena stood with her arms folded over her chest, shifting her weight between her feet, staring at the screen in worry. Finally, as Kara was dragged out from behind the counter, she grabbed her gun.

“This is crazy, I’m going in,” she said, heading toward the door.

“Right behind you,” said Hank.

“Stop,” said William, rising from his chair and drawing his gun, pointing it at the pair. “I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ask you two to stand down. I don’t like guns much, but when necessary, I will use them.”

Lena stared at him in anger before sliding her gun back in her waistband and turning anxiously back to the screen.

***

Alice stepped forward, looking Kara up and down with puzzled interest. “Well, finally we meet.”

She paused. “In a computer store. Which is...different.” She shrugged off the obvious oddity. “No matter. When last we spoke, you mentioned a certain Agent Dey.”

“That’s right,” said Kara, raising her chin and projecting her best spy look. “Because I’m the one who ended Agent Dey’s life, not Alex Danvers. She was just a patsy.”

Alice looked her up and down, from her thick black glasses, to her Nerd Herd uniform, completely pocket protector, down to her scuffed black Chucks. “ _ You _ took out Dey?”

She stepped closer, her boots echoing in the empty store. “Ms. ...Nerd Herd?”

Kara nodded like it was obvious. “Yeah! In a nutshell. That’s kinda what happened.”

“Well then, if that’s true, you won’t have any problem with Glen and Ian here.”

Kara paled. “G--Glen  _ and _ Ian?” The two burly men stepped forward. “Sure, no problem. But you should know Glen and Ian -- Ian and Glen -- that if you take one more step, I will drop you!”

Alice winced at her like it was painful to watch her faux display of bravado.

Kara raised her fists and willed herself to flash.  _ Come on, flash! FLASH! _ Nothing happened but the sound of heartbeat pounding in her ears getting louder.

Either Glen or Ian -- she wasn’t sure which was which -- threw a punch to her jaw that knocked her to the floor. She quickly stood back up and hoped that the attack would trigger the Intersect like it had with Nia. 

Nothing happened. 

“Okay! Okay...now I’m angry!” She cried, trying not to wince at the pain in her jaw. “I’m angry...and in a great deal of pain.” She pressed the tips of her finger to her lip where it felt like it was split, and sure enough, the pads of her fingers came away covered in blood.

“Oh heck no!” She said, and began to make some fake martial arts moves and sounds until she saw a look of confusion come over the Leviathan agents faces, and knowing they weren’t on their guard, turned quickly and sprinted into the backroom, toward the loading dock exit.

***

“That was her plan?” William muttered in disbelief as they watched Kara hightail it to the backroom.

Lena pulled out her gun and headed out of the room. “I’m going in,” she turned to William. “Shoot me if you have to.”

He quickly reached for his gun, but Hank was faster on the draw and had his own pointed at Dey before he could get there.

“You’re fast,” said William in resignation.

“Yep,” Hank replied. “And something else you should know about me? I  _ love  _ guns.” He motioned for William to slide his own down the table to him. William complied.

“Good boy,” Hank sneered, then darted out after Lena.

As they entered the Nerd Herd, Hank immediately began firing on three of the thugs, sending Lena after Alice, Kara, and the other Leviathan agent.

“Go on! I’ve got these guys.”

Lena nodded, clapping him on the shoulder and ran toward the backroom.

*** 

Kara huddled under the desk in the cage, trying to formulate a plan. She saw a car battery and cables over in the corner from when they sometimes did stereo installs and began to crawl over to it, when she heard Alice’s boots. 

Her heart began to race and she quickly dragged the battery and cables back to the desk with her, clamping one end onto the battery terminals and the other onto the metal wiring of the chain-link cage.

Then she scurried back under the desk and waited. 

She saw Alice and the henchman slowly enter the backroom and she covered her hand with her mouth so that she wouldn’t breathe too loudly.

“Check the cage,” said Alice, motioning the agent forward. He stepped forward, looking through the chain-link fencing. Then he reached down and grabbed the handle to the door, and was immediately electrocuted, his body writhing as it fell to the ground.

His muscle spasms caused him to begin firing his weapon indiscriminately as he fell, throwing Alice off balance, which provided the perfect distraction for when Lena came sprinting into the room, striking her with a flawless roundhouse kick.

They began sparring, trading punch for punch. Lena seemed to be gaining the upper hand, slamming Alice’s head down onto the table, until Alice produced a collapsible baton and began pummeling Lena with it, putting her on her guard until she kicked her backward into a pile of boxes.

Alice turned around trying to located her gun, and Kara felt her world grind to a halt. 

Yanking the battery cables off the terminals, she threw the door to the cage open and grabbed Alice’s gun before she could dive for it.

She quickly raised it and turned the safety off. Alice turned and looked at her, before giving her a condescending smirk and running away, knowing Kara would not pull the trigger.

Kara raced after her, throwing open the loading dock door. She skidded to a stop and pointed the gun at Alice.

“Stop! Don’t move!”

Alice stopped and raised her hands, turning around to face her. “Or what?”

Kara huffed out a breath. “Please just...do what I say.” Her voice broke on the last word. She didn’t want to kill Alice, she didn’t even think she could. But this was for Alex, to keep her safe. She could not let this woman get away, and if that meant shooting her…

“Spies don’t say please,” Alice sneered. “Now Alex...Alex would have already had a bullet between my eyes by now.”

Kara’s breathing quickened. “Alright fine. Your choice: Live or die.”

Alice smirked. “That’s better.” She began reaching behind her.

“What are you doing? Don’t do that. Do  _ not _ do that!” Kara cried.

“It’s just the phone,” Alice said, holding the communicator up for her to see. “You do want it, right? Or if you can’t think of a use for it, I’m sure I can.”

As she was speaking, distracting Kara with the phone, her other hand snuck back to her waistband, withdrawing a switch blade and flipping it open.

“I can make a phone call and have fifty operatives here.”

Kara raised the gun higher as her heart pounded, and she willed herself not to cry. She was not a killer, she didn’t want to be a killer.

“Don’t make me shoot you,” she pleaded.

“I don’t think you can,” Alice smirked.

Lena came sprinting through the door, catching Kara’s attention and Alice raised the knife to throw it at her.

A gunshot rang out and Alice crumpled to the ground.

Standing behind her was William, who lowered a smoking pistol.

“Like I said, I hate guns,” he said as he walked toward them. “But it pays to know how to use one.” 

***

They all sat around the table in the command center while William spoke.

“I suppose congratulations are in order, Kara. Alex’s identity has been contained.”

Hank sighed heavily. “We got lucky this time, Dey.” He got up and walked out of the room.

“Yeah, and risked my family doing it,” Kara added, glaring at the agent. She was seething. This man had put Alex in danger and then left her to die in the field. 

“There’s something that you need to know about me, William. There is  _ nothing _ in my life that is more important to me than my friends and my family. Of course, I don’t expect you to understand that. Being the spy that you are, I’m sure you don’t care about anybody.”

Lena looked over at her with worry. She had never seen Kara so visibly angry before.

“Family and friends make us vulnerable,” William shot back. “Make us unable to pull the trigger. And that puts everyone in even greater danger.” He turned to Lena. “Just ask your partner here, she’ll tell you the same thing.”

Kara looked over at Lena, who met her eyes for a brief moment before turning to William.

“Sometimes it helps to know that you’ve got something to lose,” she replied, her brow arched defiantly.

Kara gave her a soft smile.

William stared at her with narrow eyes before leaving the room.

Lena looked back to Kara and returned her smile before doing the same.

***

Kara trudged through the door to find Alex waiting up for her with a glass of scotch sitting in front of her, one leg tucked underneath her, the other pulled up to her chest. Her chin rested on her knee as she stared into space.

“Hey sis…” She began, giving a grimacing half-smile when Alex finally looked her way. “Do you want to talk now, or…?”

Alex grabbed her scotch glass and scooted over on the couch, making room for her.

“Start from the beginning,” she said, her voice flat.

Kara sat down next to her and took a deep breath. “Well, it all started when James Olsen sent me an email on my birthday…”

***

“That’s amazing, Kara. They actually figured out a way to program the human brain...amazing...”

Kara smiled. “Yeah, yeah it’s pretty incredible, even if it has caused me a lot of problems.” She laughed lightly.

“Yeah, if the past couple days are any indication, this doesn’t seem particularly safe, Kara. I don’t like this. I don’t like you being in danger all the time.”

“Alex I --”

A creaking sound came from down the hallway and Alex put a hand over Kara’s mouth and waited, but no other sounds came from the apartment.

“Sorry,” she said, releasing Kara’s mouth. “I just don’t want Kelly to know about all of this.”

Kara shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, um, well...there’s more.”

Alex narrowed her eyes. 

Kara inhaled deeply, steeling herself. “Do you remember when I was supposed to go cake tasting with you awhile back?”

“Yeah...yeah, Lena said she had some family thing...were you on a mission?”

Kara tilted her head back and forth. “Kinda. Lena and I were actually on the run. The CIA was going to put me underground in order to keep me safe, and we had to stop all of that from happening, but--but that’s not the important part. The important part is--is Kelly found out.”

Alex stared at her, her pained disbelief written in every line of her face. “What?”

Kara spoke quickly, trying to explain. “It--It was an accident. She thought I was being weird or Hank was being weird? I’m a little fuzzy on the details there, but she broke into Hank’s place and he found her and I had to explain everything to her, but I told her she had to keep it a secret to protect you--to keep you safe!”

Alex sat silently for what felt like an hour, staring at her with a frown hanging from her lips, tears sliding down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Alex. I just --- please say something.”

Alex shook her head and wiped her eyes. “I just...I guess I just don’t understand how you could do this. How you can have all of these secrets...and  _ I’m _ the last person to know. I thought--I thought I knew you better than anyone.”

Kara felt her heart shatter. This was always inevitable, that Alex would be hurt by her lying and omission, by letting her stay in the dark for so long.

“I’m sorry, but not telling you was the best way to keep you safe. Believe me, there’s no one I wanted to tell more. I mean,” she grabbed Alex’s hands and squeezed them, “you practically raised me, you know? Of course I wanted to tell you. But I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to keep you safe.”

Alex rolled her eyes but didn’t pull away. “Well, look how that worked out.”

Kara sighed. She had a point.

“So...what’s next? What about Alice? What about the organisation she works for? What are you gonna do?”

Kara breathed deeply and sat up straighter, looking her sister in the eye so she’d know how serious she was. 

“I’m gonna take down Leviathan. Every last one of them. They are not going to get away with putting you in danger.”

Alex sat silently for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Okay, and then you’re done.”

It was like a record scratched in her head. “Uh...what?”

“As a spy,” Alex clarified, “This life, this job. Kara, I made a promise to myself after Mom and Dad died that I would protect you, and I can’t do that -- not from this. Not from this job. So, you finish it, and then you’re done.”

Kara stared at her in disbelief. “Alex, I can’t--”

Alex cut her off. “We are all that we have left, Kara. And I’m not going to lose you too.”

Kara tried to speak, but found no words. Sure, she knew that Alex wouldn’t be  _ thrilled _ at the job that she had chosen, but she didn’t think she would react this badly -- especially after she heard the whole story. How could she quit? She had given up everything for this job -- given up  _ Lena _ for this job. And even if she wanted to quit, the CIA would never let her! She’d be thrown into lockdown until they could remove the Intersect from her, if ever.

“Alex I...I  _ can’t _ . I can’t quit. It’s not that simple. I have government secrets in my head. The CIA isn’t just going to let me walk away. I -- they’ll put me in a hole in the ground somewhere and I’ll never see you or Kelly or Winn ever again, except  _ maybe _ during visitation hours when you tell me who the current president is!”

Alex pulled her hands away from her sister and sat quietly, considering her words and sipping her scotch. When her glass was finally empty, she turned to Kara, seeming to have come to a conclusion.

“I understand. And I can’t stop you. So, if this is something you feel you have to do, then do it. I won’t give you a hard time about it.”

Kara’s shoulders dropped in relief. “Thank you, sis.”

“But I don’t want to know about it,” she continued, looking down at the empty glass in her hands. “I don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to know about your missions, about you scaling buildings, diffusing bombs, or killing people--”

“Alex I don’t kill people--”

“I don’t want to know,” she cut across Kara. “I want to be kept out of it. Kelly, too. I don’t want her involved in this. You say it’s safer if we don’t know? Then pretend we don’t know.”

Kara felt her chest tightening, a lump rising to the back of her throat. Tears filled her eyes as her heart broke all over again. She had been so happy, so  _ relieved _ to finally be able to tell her sister the truth, to not have to hide half of herself from the person she loved most in this world, and now that same person was telling her she didn’t want to hear it.

“But...Alex I --”

Alex shook her head. “You’ve kept it from me for years now. I’m sure it’ll come naturally to you.”

She rose from the couch and left the room without another word, leaving Kara with nothing but a broken heart and an empty glass of scotch.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. Not exactly how I expected Alex to take it, but I can't say I blame her. 
> 
> What did ya think?


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara feels increasingly isolated and it begins to affect her spy life. Winn makes an important discovery. Alex and Kelly try to move past Kara's secret.

“Come on, come on! Flash! Flash, dammit!” 

Nothing. 

Kara’s heart raced as the Leviathan agent stepped closer, pulling their gun and raising it at her.

Panic rose in her chest and she could feel herself starting to lose control. “Come on! Flash! FLASH!”

The Leviathan agent grinned and pointed the gun at her head. This was it. She was going to die in some crummy old warehouse because she couldn’t get the supercomputer in her head to turn on because she was too emotional. Fuck.

The door flew open next to them with a loud grunt and suddenly all she could see was long legs and pale arms throwing punch after punch, as Lena knocked the assailant’s gun away, knocking him unconscious.

Panting, she turned to Kara in concern. “You still can’t flash?”

Kara looked away. Hank was right, she was a lemon. 

Lena frowned and retrieved the key they had been trying to get from the agent and said nothing more to Kara. 

Ever since she’d confessed everything to her sister and Alex had shut her down so vehemently, it was like the Intersect had refused to work. She had been so happy, so excited to finally be able to let Alex in on her life, but Alex wanted nothing to do with it. She had tried to talk to her a couple of times, even trying to subtly mask it with normal life talk, but whenever she did that, Alex would walk out of the room. 

Her heart burned and constricted in her chest. She needed to be able to talk to someone about all of this shit. It felt cruel to have what she needed right there in front of her and still not be able to have it.

And now it was affecting her spy life. She rubbed her face as they left the room, Leviathan agent in tow. Something had to give.

***

The next day, Kara bounded down the stairs into The Tower to find Hank, Lena, and William all sitting at the command center, waiting for her.

“Hey guys, I got your call, what’s up?”

She looked over to Lena, who looked away immediately. 

_Uh oh..._

“What’s...what’s going on?”

Hank slid a file over to her. “You’re the Intersect, you tell us.”

“We’ve intercepted intel that Leviathan is planning to turn and use a CIA agent against us,” said William, as Kara opened the file. There were various pictures of agents in it, but nothing triggered a flash.

“The problem is, we don’t know who, when, or where,” Lena added.

“The Intersect should have something,” William finished.

Kara looked through all of the pictures a second time, but nothing happened.

She looked up to see Lena looking at her anxiously. “Did you flash?”

“Uh, no, not flashing,” she replied shamefully.

William sighed. “You haven’t flashed in over a week, Kara. Ever since Alex was taken. That’s a problem.”

Kara’s stomach flipped. “Problem?” She laughed nervously. “Really? Problem? That’s kind of a strong word, don’t you think? Just because a girl had a couple of off nights?”

“Off nights get agents killed,” said William flatly. “You need to figure this out, because as long as the Intersect’s not working, I can’t risk putting you out in the field.”

Kara stared at him. “Okay, so what exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying that until you start flashing again, you’re no longer a spy.”

Kara’s heart beat a furious tattoo in her chest. “What?! No! No, no, you can’t do that! Being a spy is all that I have, I gave up _everything_ for this!” She stared pointedly at Lena. 

Lena gave her a sympathetic quirk of her brow. “Well, maybe some time off will do you good, Kara. Maybe it will help you function again.”

Kara shook her head vigorously. “No, I don’t-- I don’t need time off, okay? Maybe I’m not flashing because I have all of these emotions bottled up in me, you ever think about that? I mean, I put my sister in danger and now she won’t talk to me. I caused a rift between her and her fiancée right before their wedding. I can’t talk to my best friend about anything in my life. I’m not a _machine_!” She paused, considering the supercomputer in her head. “Okay, I _am_ a machine, but I’m also a person.”

Lena struggled to find the right words. “Well...you can always talk to us…?” She gestured between herself and William. (Talking to Hank about feelings was out of the question and they all knew it.)

Kara looked between the two, to Lena, the woman of her dreams with which there was so much hurt and pain, and then to William, who she loathed, and who seemed to always be around Lena, always touching her. He currently had his hand on the back of her chair as he sat impossibly close to her at the table. Was there something going on between them? 

_No, don’t think about that, it’ll just make everything worse._

“Yeah, no thanks, I don’t think that’s gonna work for me,” she muttered.

“Well, find something that does work, because until you do, you’re benched,” William replied.

***

Kelly rubbed sunblock onto Alex’s pale, freckled shoulders as they sat by the pool in a resort across town. 

“This was such a great idea babe, you were right. We really needed to get away,” she said, capping the bottle. 

They had had several long talks over the past week, about the lying, the secrecy, about Kara. In the end they had realised though they were both angry that Kara had put them in this position, they both understood that it came from a place of love and protection, just as their own deception had.

Alex had forgiven Kelly for keeping it from her, and Kelly had forgiven Alex for lying to her about her kidnapping. It was going to take some time before Alex was ready to completely forgive her sister, but this weekend was not about Kara. 

This weekend was about the two of them getting away, reconnecting, and working through their issues -- one climax at a time.

Alex turned and smiled. “I agree. I’m so happy to just be here with you, away from everything. Feels great.” She leaned over and pulled Kelly into a soft kiss, feeling the press of her lips against her own and savouring it as she ran her hands down strong copper arms.

Kelly’s phone began to ring and Alex groaned as she pulled away to answer it.

“Sorry baby,” she said apologetically. “It could be a patient in crisis.”

Grabbing her phone, she excused herself and walked over to the corner of the pool area, answering the call.

“Hello?”

_“Kelly! Thank God you picked up,”_ Kara nearly shouted into the phone. Kelly’s shoulders sagged at the sound of her voice. This weekend was supposed to be about getting _away_ from Kara.

“Everything okay, Kara?” Her voice unintentionally sharp as a knife.

_“No, not--not really,”_ Kara whined into the phone. _“Alex won’t talk to me, and I can’t talk to Winn, and I think Lena might be dating another guy who happens to be my new boss, and now I’ve been benched, so not only is my personal life a mess, but now my spy life is too and I--”_

“Kara!” Kelly snapped into the phone. “Alex and I went on vacation to get _away_ from your spy life, okay? And to fix the damage that _your_ job caused between us.”

_“No! Kelly, Kelly, Kelly,”_ Kara pleaded and begged into the phone, _“I don’t have anyone else to talk to.”_

Kelly sighed, shifting her weight uncomfortably. It wasn’t like her to turn her back on anyone in need, _especially_ not Kara, but this was something that she and Alex had come to an agreement on. This was part of their conflict resolution.

“I’m sorry, Kara, but I think Alex and I have made it clear that we don’t want to be a part of this. I have to go.” 

She hung up, feeling guilt simmering in her chest. Shoving it down, she walked to the wet bar and ordered two pina coladas. This was about her and Alex. They were on island time now.

***

Kara stared at the phone through which Kelly had just brushed her off and felt her chest constrict further. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take of this cardiac destruction before the strain caused heart failure. 

Emerging from the home theater room, she found Winn walking toward her, and felt a pang of guilt. 

Sometime in the past couple weeks, Winn had been made Assistant Manager of the Nerd Herd, and Kara had not been around to even congratulate him, let alone celebrate with him. 

Her absence had not gone unnoticed. 

Every chance Winn got, he had been badgering her about where she disappeared to, why they didn’t hang out much anymore, and she found she had no answers to give. This was her best friend in the whole world, and every day she felt them pulling further and further away from each other.

“Kara,” he said brightly, “Can I see you in my office?”

Kara hung her head but followed him down the hallway, into the small closet that he happily claimed as his office.

“Have a seat, please,” he said, gesturing to a plastic chair in front of his desk. She dropped into it and felt her knees immediately smack the desk in front of her painfully in the cramped space. She winced.

“You need anything? You okay?”

She frowned. “Uh, no--no I’m good. You know, maybe a little more leg room would be nice,” she joked.

Winn ignored her. “This conversation is never an easy one to have with an employee, Kara.”

“And what conversation would that be, exactly?” 

Winn sighed and sat up straighter. “We’ve known each other for most of our lives. We went through puberty together, we went the awkward stage after puberty, the awkward high school years, your awkward college years, and now our current awkward Nerd Herd years. Which is why this moment, for me, is so…”

“Awkward?” Kara supplied.

“Yeah.”

“Winn, what exactly is going on?”

“ _Something_ is,” Winn said defiantly. “Something is going on with you in your life. You’ve been absent, distracted, we never hang out anymore, something happened between you and Lena, but you won’t tell me what, and I just feel that a true best friend would share this type of stuff with _her_ true best friend.”

Kara sat silently for a moment, thinking over his words. Maybe it was all of the strain she had been under lately, or maybe he just caught her on an off day, but she found herself ready to just spill everything to him. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes at the thought of finally coming clean to him.

“I know you need to talk about it,” Winn continued. “I do. And I can take it! Lay it on me, like a potsticker on a slice of pizza! I am ready!”

Kara cleared her throat, clearing it of its wetness. “Okay, here goes,” she said, taking a deep breath, and opened her mouth to speak.

_But wait,_ a voice in her head said, _you told Alex, and now she won’t speak to you anymore. What if he reacts the same way? What if_ he _is the next one kidnapped? What if you tell him and he is put in danger as a result? What if you tell him to selfishly cleanse your own soul, only to terrify him and make him scared and paranoid? What if he doesn’t believe you and thinks you’re lying to him? Why_ would _he believe you? It’s an insane story!_

All valid points. And that was not even mentioning the fact that she literally was _not allowed_ to tell him.

She looked into his expectant face, an open soft smile on his lips as he waited for her to speak. She opened and closed her mouth, trying to find a way to say something -- anything -- to make him understand.

“I just--I can’t--”

Winn’s face fell with disappointment and he stood up from his desk, walking around it to open the door for her.

“Got it. You don’t have to say anything more.”

“Say more? Winn, I didn’t say anything!”

Winn opened the door and straightened his tie, staring down at the floor dejectedly. “I can’t believe I am saying this, but...you’re fired.”

Kara gaped at him incredulously. “What?! You’re firing me from the Nerd Herd?”

Winn looked puzzled. “The Nerd Herd? No way, are you kidding me? You’re the best Nerd Herder we have. I need you here. No, I’m--I’m firing you as my best friend.”

Her mouth fell open, her shoulders sagged, and she felt her throat tighten as she looked at her best friend -- now former best friend -- who was looking anywhere but her.

She stood up and walked to the door. “Winn, I’m--I’m sorry, buddy…”

Winn didn’t answer, just held the door open for her as a gesture for her to leave.

She felt her heart break into a million tiny pieces as she left the little closet and headed down to The Tower. She needed a distraction. Perhaps the team could provide her with one.

***

She shuffled into the command center to see the trio prepping for a mission. Hank was wearing a handyman jumpsuit and he loaded a toolbelt into a duffle. Lena was checking the clips of her guns, and William was going over some files in front of him, his brow furrowed.

“Hey guys, you leaving on a mission? Sure you don’t want me to join?”

“We’d love you to, Kara,” William replied, not looking up at her. “But the Intersect is not working.”

Lena watched her face fall and took some pity on her, handing her a page from the file on the table in front of her and said, “The agent that Leviathan is planning to turn is staying at this hotel. There’s no record of any spy being there, so whoever it is is deep undercover.”

Kara stared at the page in her hand, at the name of the hotel, willing herself to flash, but nothing happened. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m--I’m still not flashing.”

She saw a brief look of disappointment pass over Lena’s face before she schooled her features and exchanged a quick look with William.

“Well, we gotta go,” William said, ending the awkward silence and grabbing his duffle. “Hold down the fort, Kara.”

Hank slammed his bag down on the table next to Kara. “When I get back, I expect this place to look exactly as I left it,” he growled.

Kara saw William hand a ring to Lena and slide his own onto his left ring finger out of the corner of her eye, and frowned deeply. Now they were playing a married couple? That was _their_ thing. The deep fissures in her heart cracked open even wider.

“You two newlyweds ready?” Hank asked, grabbing his bag. Lena and William grabbed their supplies and headed out.

Kara stopped Hank just before he left. “Wait, what am I supposed to do while you guys are gone?”

Hank scoffed. “Don’t you have a day job?”

She frowned as he walked away. So much for a distraction.

***

Kara slumped into the backroom and found Winn, Brainy, and Nia all crouched down next to the management office, clearly trying to eavesdrop on something.

“Hey guys, what’s going on?”

All three jumped up and shushed her quickly. “Kara, shut up,” Nia shout-whispered, “this is a spy mission. You are not qualified. Go away!”

Kara rolled her eyes at the irony of that statement as the door opened and several men in suits came out, followed by their store manager, and the foursome scurried quickly around the corner to avoid detection.

“Will someone please tell me, what’s going on?” Kara asked, confusion clear in her voice.

“From what we can tell,” Nia began, “someone is thinking of buying the store. We’re closing today so that some technicians and building inspectors can come here and like, kick the tires.”

“They want to interview everyone,” Winn continued, “reevaluate the entire staff. They’re gonna fire everyone who is not essential.”

Brainy and Nia exchanged worried looks. “We’re in big trouble!”

Not long after that the aforementioned technicians and inspectors showed up. They seemed to be going over the store with a fine tooth comb. Checking every seam of the building, the home theater room, the manager’s office, Winn’s little closet, everything.

Kara looked over to where Winn was pacing back and forth, clearly nervous about his interview, and her heart twinged. How could he fire her as his best friend? I mean, she _got it,_ but at the same time...they had been friends for more than a decade. You didn’t just throw that away. Maybe if she could just talk to him. Maybe she could change his mind.

“Hey Winn? Buddy, I need to talk to you.”

“Clearly you don’t, Kara, or I wouldn’t have just fired you as my best friend.”

Kara’s heart clenched again. “Please, Winn. Can I please just have a minute?”

“Not now, dude! I’m freaking out about this interview.”

Kara stopped his nervous pacing and put her hands on his shoulders, looking down into his anxious face. “Look, hey, buddy...you’re gonna be fine! Besides, it’s only the Nerd Herd. You can always get another job, it’s not the end of the world.”

Finally, he looked up at her, but it wasn’t a look of relief or happiness he gave her. It was one of disgust. “Really, dude?! It may not be the end of the world to _you_ , but I don’t have a fancy NCU education, Kara! I can’t do anything else but Nerd Herd. This job is all I have!”

She opened her mouth to reply, but the door to the manager’s office opened and a young black man stepped out in his corporate suit and called out her name. Kara looked back to Winn, who just scowled and looked away, and the fissure in her heart grew once more. She sighed and followed the man into the office.

An older gentleman with graying hair and black glasses like her own was standing in the office. He gave her a smile and shook her hand.

“Ms. Danvers, I’m Martin Stein and this is my associate, Jefferson Jackson.”

Jackson shook her hand and Kara gave them both a polite smile before taking her seat.

Stein looked over her employee file with interest. “This is an impressive resume. So what’s an NCU alumnus doing working at a Nerd Herd?”

Kara shifted in her chair. “Uh, you know, I found that the Nerd Herd offers more opportunities than initially meets the eye.”

“Really,” Jackson inquired, looking puzzled. “For instance?”

“For instance, I get to work with my best friend everyday,” Kara said quietly, gesturing out the window to Winn, who was still pacing anxiously. 

“Your best friend?” Stein asked with a smile.

“Yeah, Winn Schott, the Assistant Manager,” she replied.

Stein tilted his head thoughtfully. “Based on your resume and your track record, you’re the cream of this Nerd Herd crop. Why aren’t _you_ the Assistant Manager?”

“Because the right guy has already got the job,” she replied immediately, without hesitation. “Look, I know that you guys are...probably going to be making some changes around here, so I just want you to know that while I might look good on paper, I’m not the cream of the crop. Winn Schott is.”

The two men smiled at her and continued on asking innocuous questions about working in the store and any structural issues she had noticed, but her mind was far away. She hoped her words would hold some sway and Winn could keep his job.

***

Across town, Lena and William unloaded their equipment into a hotel room, while Hank stayed down in the van, quarterbacking their movements from there.

“There’s a Leviathan agent somewhere in this hotel. I’m tapped into the phone’s mainframe. If Leviathan calls out again, we can trace it back to the room it originated from,” Hank informed them.

“Lena and I are getting the surveillance equipment set up. We’ll begin searching for possible targets,” William replied, grabbing a pair of high tech binoculars.

About an hour later, a call box popped up on Hank’s screen, indicating a call was being placed from the Leviathan phone. “They just made a call from the hotel. I’ll patch you in while I trace it back.”

_“Our operative is by the pool,”_ a voice crackled into their earpieces. _“Tall, dark skin, attractive. She’s wearing a white bathing suit.”_

The call ended. “You got that, Luthor?” Hank asked.

“Yeah, I got it,” she replied, rising to point her scope at the pool, searching for the target.

She passed from left to right quickly until she found a dark skinned woman in a white bathing suit, and her heart thudded to a stop in her chest.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. 

“Did you find the target?”

“Yeah, we found her...it’s Kelly!”

***

Kara rose from her chair, shaking the men’s hands while they complimented her and called her a good egg. 

“Well it was great to meet you,” she forced out with a grimacing smile. She hoped her inner angst had not bled through into her interview.

“You too, Ms. Danvers! Really great!” Stein said, opening the door for her. Jackson clapped her on the back as she walked out. 

Well that seemed to go well.

Closing the door, Stein turned to Jackson and said, “Get the others in here.”

Jackson pulled out a Leviathan communicator and called for their team to come into the office. 

“So you really think this Danvers girl is Agent Dawson?”

“Oh she’s Dawson, alright. Looks like Dey left her behind to man the fort. He’s getting sloppy now that he thinks we think he’s dead.”

“Should we abort the mission?”

“No, with Dey not here, it’s our one chance to infiltrate their base and recover everything he has on us.”

The building inspectors and technicians entered the office and closed the door behind them.

“Have you found the entrance to the CIA’s base yet?”

“Not yet,” one of the inspectors replied.

“We don’t have much time,” Stein replied. “We have to find it fast.”

“Do you want us to take out Danvers?”

“Not yet,” Stein replied. “Let’s keep interviewing employees and make sure Dey didn’t leave any other surprises behind.”

He stepped closer to the window, peering out into the store.

“Kara said Schott is her best friend. We can exploit that -- use both of them to our advantage.”

Jackson stepped forward. “What do you want to do about the others?”

Stein looked out into the store and thought for a moment. “I think we need to be conservative here. Terminate the rest.”

***

Alex sighed happily, soaking up the sun, a pina colada in her hand. She wasn’t usually one for fruity drinks, but in the relaxing warm haze around them, it just felt right.

“This was such a great idea, getting away. Since we got here, I gotta tell you...I feel awesome again.”

“Me too,” Kelly replied with a smile, tilting down her sunglasses to gaze at Alex. “To us,” she held out her glass, “no work, no stress, no _spies_ , just you and me.”

Upstairs, Lena and William were grabbing their guns and heading to the pool. Alex and Kelly were in danger once again, and Lena knew Kara would never forgive her if anything happened to them.

“The call came from room 4673. I’ll head there now and search it,” Hank growled through their comms.

“We'll go down to the pool, get Alex and Kelly out of harm’s way.”

Lena checked the clip in her gun nervously as the elevator slowly descended toward the ground floor. They rushed quickly toward the pool area, yanking open the gate and keeping to the edge to avoid being noticed.

She saw Kelly rise from her lounger and head toward the bar and took the opportunity to yank her behind the giant palm tree in the corner of the pool area.

“What--” she looked up and saw Lena and William and immediately her gaze hardened. “What are you two doing here? You’re not supposed to be here! We came here to get away from you guys!”

“We got a tip that Leviathan was trying to turn an agent staying at this hotel. You, Kelly,” Lena explained quickly.

“Me?! But I’m not an agent! Kara told me and Alex were in the clear from all of this.” She crossed her arms over her chest and then a thought occurred to her. “Are Alex and I in danger?”

“We don’t know,” William replied. 

Hank’s voice crackled over their comms. “I’m at the Leviathan agent’s room. Going in.”

“Be careful,” Lena replied into her wrist comm.

Hank grinned as he approached the door, pulling out a flash bang grenade. “I’m always careful.”

He tossed the grenade into the room and pulled the door closed to muffle the blast. Then he threw it open again, gun drawn to capture the agent.

But there was no one here. The room was completely empty, but for a Leviathan communicator device that sat wired to the hotel room phone, playing the recording they had heard on a loop. 

_“Our operative is by the pool…”_ It continued to play, until Hank unplugged the device. “It’s a setup.”

***

“I’ve got to get Alex out of here,” Kelly said, her voice rising with anxiety. “I’ve gotta get both of us out of here, _right now._ ”

“Keep it together, Kelly,” said William calmly. “We’ll figure this out.”

“We’ve been set up,” Hank said into their ears. “Abort mission.”

William and Lena exchanged a glance and sighed.

Kelly looked between them in frustration. “What?! What was that?!”

William fixed an apologetic smile to his face. “I’m so sorry, false alarm.”

Kelly did a double take. “Wait, you crash my weekend getaway to tell me I’m in danger, now you’re telling me, what? That we’re safe?”

“Yes,” Lena replied, offering her a bashful smile. “I’m sorry. Please try and enjoy the rest of your vacation.”

Kelly looked at them disbelief and then back over to Alex. They had to get away from this shit.

***

Winn sat in the breakroom, helping himself to a cup of coffee, and praying he wouldn’t get canned. He felt bad for snapping at Kara earlier, and for firing her as his bff, but he also knew that he was right. She was hiding stuff from him, and that wasn’t something they did. He also knew that he had nowhere else to go professionally if he lost this job. He had a lot on his mind at the moment.

“Let’s check the breakroom,” came a deep voice from in the hallway, and if you asked Winn to explain why, he wouldn’t be able to tell you, but he suddenly got the urge to hide. Some small voice inside of him told him that it was important that he not be noticed when the inspectors came in.

He quickly hopped up on top of the storage cabinet that housed the coffee filters and toilet paper and made himself as small as possible. Two men came in and closed the door, pulling out some kind of tech equipment and began scanning the room. They stopped in front of the employee lockers.

“Found something,” one of the men said. “There’s a tunnel behind these lockers.”

Winn raised his head to look in shock.

“Fingerprint scanner,” the man continued after scanning the wall some more. “This must be it. Go get Stein and Jackson. Tell ‘em we found the CIA base.”

Winn’s eyes widened. _CIA base? In the Nerd Herd?_

He watched as the man began to attach some kind of device to one of the lockers. It bleeped a couple of times, and then there was a _thunk_ , and the wall of employee lockers swung forward like a door, revealing a narrow tunnel behind them. Winn’s jaw dropped.

Stein and Jackson strode into the breakroom and Stein grinned at the tunnel. “Good work. Tell the other’s we found Dey’s base.” 

Then he, Jackson, and two other men entered the passage to The Tower, the door beginning to close behind them.

Winn made a split second decision and jumped down from the storage cabinet, diving into the tunnel just before the door closed. He followed the dimly lit passage as quietly as he could until he reached a set of stairs, which he descended slowly. 

As he reached the bottom, he peered around the corner and saw the group of men walking quickly deeper into the base. He pulled back so he would not be seen and covered his mouth so he didn’t breathe too loudly. 

_This was insane._ _The CIA had a secret base under the Nerd Herd?_ He had to be dreaming. There was no way this was real. And yet, as he pinched himself and crept around the corner, following the echoing footsteps of the men, the dream did not dissipate. He did not wake.

This was real. 

He followed Stein and his men, maintaining a healthy distance between them so they would not catch him. As they entered what appeared to be a command center for the base of operations, he heard Stein begin to speak again, and dropped low to the floor, peering around the corner.

“Clever, putting their base of operations below a computer store,” Stein said, typing something into the computer.

“Every piece of intelligence Dey has on Leviathan is in here. We’ll be putting a dagger through the heart of the CIA’s operation by taking it out,” Jefferson replied with an evil smirk.

Martin grinned back. “Alright, you’re on. Cut off all communications in and out of the store. Break into their mainframe. Find and destroy everything they have on us. Then blow this base sky high.”

“It will be a pleasure.”

***

Hank pulled the Leviathan communicator out of its port and put it in a soundproof evidence box. They were back in the Leviathan decoy’s room, collecting evidence and trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

“The phone works remotely,” Hank explained. “It was a setup, they lured us here.”

“But why would they lure us here?” Lena asked, checking drawers for any evidence.

“It’s not where they lured us to, it’s where they lured us from,” William answered, pacing around the room. “Leviathan must know I’m alive, which means they know I’ll have a base of operations somewhere. They sent us here so I would abandon my base. That way they can go recover all the intelligence we have on them.”

“They weren’t after Kelly,” Hank whispered, eyes wide as the situation washed over him. “They’re after The Tower.”

Lena’s breathing quickened as her heart began to race. “Kara’s in there and she’s not flashing! She’s a sitting duck!” 

Grabbing her duffel, she raced out of the room, not even waiting to see if her partners were following her.

***

Kara walked through the backroom, searching for Winn. She hadn’t seen him in a while and she really wanted to try to make things right. As she rounded a corner heading toward his office/closet, he skidded out in front of her and began talking quickly, even as he tried to catch his breath.

“Hey whoa! Kara we’ve gotta talk!”

“Yeah, I need to talk to you, buddy. I--”

“Nope, uh uh,” he cut across her, “me first, whatever you’re gonna say is _nothing_ compared to what I got, dude!”

“Okay, yeah sure,” she said, just happy he was talking to her again.

“Okay uh...dude: there’s a secret underground spy base under _our_ Nerd Herd!” He had a huge shit eating grin on his face as he spoke and just like that, Kara felt her entire world grind to a halt.

Her jaw dropped open and her eyes flew wide. _How did he know that? How had he found The Tower?!_

Winn grinned at her dumbstruck face. “Hey listen man, I know this sounds crazy, but the people who are here claiming to buy the store? They’re bad guys, okay? And they call themselves: ‘Leviathan’. Which, I know is like oooooh not that scary, but like, trust me! These guys are not to be messed with!”

Kara felt bile spill up into her mouth and she swallowed it down quickly. Winn knew about the base, there were Leviathan agents in the store, in _The Tower_ , and she couldn’t flash. Fuck.

“How--How--How do you--how do you know all of this?” She stuttered out, once she gained the ability to speak again.

“Okay, I was hiding. I was hiding in the breakroom and I saw them enter the base through a door behind our lockers! So, I followed them, and I heard and saw everything!”

She felt her knees go weak and nearly fell to the floor.

Winn grabbed her arms to steady her. “Hey, whoa! I know this is a lot to take in, but you’ve got to stay with me buddy! You’ve got to pull it together, because we are now in _real_ danger here, okay?”

She nodded just to give her body something to do as she processed her two worlds colliding once again. 

Winn put his hands on her shoulders and stared up into her pale, awestruck face. 

“Kara...don’t freak out.”

***

“Kara’s not answering her cell,” Lena said, her voice thick with tension. “The Nerd Herd line is down too, I can’t get through there either.”

Hank pressed the accelerator and drove faster. The lemon was on her own with Leviathan. He would not let her die on his watch.

***

“Dude, I think we should call the police,” Winn suggested as they paced around the backroom.

Kara finally felt some feeling come back into her fingers at the suggestion. Yes, they should absolutely call the police. The Lena, Hank, and William type of police.

“That’s a great idea! That is a great idea, Winn, wow. Yeah, yeah.” She pulled out her phone...there was no service. She always had service in the Nerd Herd! She maintained the wi-fi and routers herself! “Wh--”

She paced up and down the hall, looking for bars. “I don’t--I don’t have a signal.”

Winn snapped his fingers. “Right. The bad guy said they were cutting off communication to the store. You know what, by the time the cops got here it would probably be too late anyway. We need to handle this now!” He gestured between the two of them.

“No! No, _we_ don’t need to do anything except get everyone out of the store.”

Winn grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her lightly. “Kara Danvers, listen to yourself! Some very bad men are trying to blow up a CIA base under _our_ Nerd Herd okay? We are Nerd Herd's -- nay, _America’s_ \-- last line of defense! We are gonna take the fight to them!”

“Winn!” She shouted, eyes wide and panicked. “Listen to yourself right now!! This is not a video game! This is real life! People get hurt! There is no ‘restart from last checkpoint’ here!”

Winn rolled his eyes. “I understand that you’re scared, okay? And that not everybody has the stomach to be a hero, so I’ll just go see if Nia and Brainy want to help and--”

Kara stared at him in horror. Nia and Brainy?! They’d be dead by dinner. “Okay, okay fine! I will help you, on the condition that you help me get everyone out of the store first, and what you’ve told me remains a secret between us.”

“Deal,” Winn said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “No need to put anyone else at risk. We will handle this! And this secret is locked down!”

And with that, he turned to start evacuating people from the store, under the guise of sending them home early. With him distracted, Kara fiddled with her watch and hoped it would work.

“Lena? Hank? Can you hear me?” A garbled voice that sounded like Lena came through with static, but she heard the words “change” and “frequency” and she began to fiddle with the knob on the watch. 

“Can you hear me?” Nothing. 

She fiddled with the knob again.

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can hear you, what’s going on?”

She nearly collapsed with relief. “Oh thank god. Listen, Leviathan is inside The Tower. They came in posing like corporate buyers interested in purchasing the store!”

“We’re on our way back. Just sit tight,” said Hank.

She sighed in relief. The calvary was on the way. Winn appeared around the corner.

“Okay, everyone is heading out.” He tossed her a can of mace. “Here’s some mace. I know it’s not much but it’s the best I can do. This is for you too,” he handed her a walkie talkie he had clearly just pulled off the shelf, “don’t drop it, it’s expensive. Now let’s do this!”

He turned to head to the breakroom and Kara grabbed his arm. “No wait! On second thought…I don’t think we should do this.”

Winn glared at her. “Are you kidding me, Kara? Men are trying to blow up a CIA base, dude. Time is running out. It’s time to step up!”

He tried to push past her but she blocked his path again. “No, no Winn! You don’t want to do this, okay? _Trust me_. You don’t understand--”

“No, _you_ don’t understand,” he retorted. “I’ve been a loser my whole entire life, but I’m done with that, okay? It’s time for me to be a hero!”

He pushed past her and walked into the breakroom, Kara running behind him, until they were both stopped by Jefferson, who pointed his gun at the pair.

Winn gulped. “...But what is a hero, really?”

***

Jefferson led them down the tunnel to the base and into the training room. One of the agents posing as an inspector handcuffed the two together, back to back, and sat them on the floor.

“You’re all alone, Agent Dawson.”

Kara looked up and saw Stein, sharpening a straight razor on a piece of hide.

“I’ve locked down the base,” he continued, the blade of his razor _thwipp_ -ing on the leather.

“Sir,” Winn asked in exasperation, “who’s Agent Dawson? You’re crazy, okay?! This guy’s crazy, Kara, he thinks you’re a spy!”

Kara squeezed her eyes closed, happy that Winn couldn’t see her face right now. “Yeah, yeah that’s ridiculous. I mean, me? A spy?”

“Ridiculous!” Winn cried. “Okay, listen to me sir. We work at the Nerd Herd, and if you let us go, I _promise_ we’re not gonna tell anyone what you’re doing here! Tell him, Kara!”

He leaned back and whispered to Kara quickly, “I’ll get ya out of this buddy, just play along.”

“Uh, yeah!” She replied, “Not a word from us! We are zipping it! Locking it down!”

“It’s already locked down!” Winn added, his voice pitching higher when he saw the blade in Stein’s hand. “That is a really sharp looking razor.”

Stein walked toward them, razor held aloft. “We’ve searched the base’s mainframe. Dey’s files aren’t there. We know that he’s hiding them here.”

He knelt down in front of Kara and held the razor in front of her face, so close she could see her reflection in it, fogging and clearing with the heat of her breath.

“Tell us where they are, Agent Dawson. Trust me, the alternative is extremely unpleasant.”

Kara’s breath hitched in her throat. “You know, there’s no need for torture right now. Because even if I was a spy -- which I’m not! -- I’m not saying that I am a spy -- but even if I was a spy, my training would have taught me to withstand torture, so I don’t really think it’s going to have any kind of effect at this particular juncture, right?”

She breathed in deeply at the end of her ramble and Stein merely smirked at her. 

“I know. That’s why I’m going to torture him.” He pointed to Winn with the razor.

Kara’s heart stopped. “What…”

“You made the mistake of telling us this short fellow was your best friend.”

Stein stood up and moved over to kneel in front of Winn. Kara’s heart began to beat rapidly in her chest and she could feel the panic washing over her. God it would be _really_ great if she could flash right now.

“Now, for the last time, where are the files, Agent Dawson?”

“Guys, please,” Winn begged, “please, _please_ just listen to me. This is _ridiculous_ , okay? I have known this woman my entire life, alright? Kara Danvers has been my best friend -- my _sister_ \-- since we were twelve, okay? Kara Danvers is _not_ a spy!”

Stein grabbed Winn’s face and pressed the side of the razor to his cheek, just under his eye.

“Kara,” he said tauntingly as Winn screamed in terror. “Kara, now!”

“Kara, please!” Winn cried.

“Come on Kara, now!” Stein yelled.

“Kara just tell him something, please!”

Kara squeezed her eyes closed and fought against the terror in her chest at Winn’s terrified cries. “WAIT! Stop! Stop!”

Stein grinned smugly and pulled the razor away from Winn’s cheek. There wasn’t even a blemish.

Kara took a deep breath. “Winn, the truth is…” 

She squeezed her eyes tight and then opened them again, seeing little stars dance across her vision as she tried to say the words she needed to say.

“The truth is...I am a member of a joint CIA-NSA black ops team that is stationed here in National City. I have a level-6 clearance, and my codename is Kara Dawson.”

She took another deep breath.

“I’m a spy, buddy.”

***

“Anything, Lena?” William asked.

They had arrived at the Wienerlicious only to find themselves locked out of the base. Lena viciously swiped her access card and punched in code after code, to no avail.

“We’re locked out. They overrode our security access.”

William tried to hack into the controls using the POS server at the counter but was unsuccessful too.

“Ugh, I’m locked out here too. Hank is checking the Nerd Herd.”

Lena tried to quell the panic that was gripping her chest. Kara was in there, alone and unarmed, with no Intersect to help her. What were they doing to her? Were they torturing her for information? She shoved the thought into one of the thousand tiny boxes labeled 'Kara'. She couldn't think of that right now. Right now she needed to focus on getting her back in one piece.

***

“You’re a spy?” Winn whispered in disbelief.

“Buddy, don’t freak out,” said Kara quickly. “I think you’re freaking out right now, and--and--and you shouldn’t do that.”

“You’re a _spy_?” He said again, his voice growing more incredulous.

“Stay with me, buddy.”

“You two can kiss and make up later,” Stein yelled, pressing the blade to Winn’s eye again. “Where are William’s files?! _Now, Kara!_ ”

Jefferson darted into the training room. “We’ve got visitors. Colonel Henshaw and Agent Luthor decided to join the party.”

Winn’s mouth dropped open. “Hank and Lena are spies too?!”

“You two have a lot of catching up to do,” Stein smirked, heading toward the door. “Excuse me while I take care of your friends.” He folded the razor and slid it into the inner pocket of his suit. “We’ll save the torture for later.”

“No no no. I can’t--I can’t believe it,” Winn began. “All this time? You kept this a secret? From _me?_ ”

Kara jerked her head over her shoulder, trying to speak directly to him. “I’m so sorry, Winn. You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to tell you. All this lying about where I’ve been and--and making plans and breaking them, and all the time -- _all_ I’ve wanted to do is tell you about it, but I had to protect you too, you know? Please understand that,” she pleaded.

Winn was silent for a moment but for a few muttered “wows” under his breath that gradually grew louder.

“Wow...WOW! I don’t...My best friend is a _SPY?!_ THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE! THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I’VE EVER HEARD!!”

Kara nearly collapsed in relief, but stayed upright. But she couldn’t contain the giddy, relieved smile that spread across her face, nor the soft chuckle that bubbled up from her chest.

“Holy smokes, it makes perfect sense too. Why we stopped hanging out and talking. I thought I lost you, buddy. I thought I lost you, but -- but you were out _saving the world_?!”

He wiggled with excitement. “Kara, you are officially rehired as my best friend!”

She smiled softly. “Great. That’s good news. Thanks.”

He inhaled deeply. “Oh man, I have so many questions. Where do I start? Uh….how did this happen? Did they recruit you at the Nerd Herd? At NCU?”

Kara’s heart dropped again. She couldn’t tell him, could she? Not about the Intersect. It was one thing for him to know she was a spy, but another entirely for him to know that she was a sentient computer full of government secrets. She sucked her lips into her mouth anxiously.

“Kara?” 

When she said nothing, he added, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna die here, dude, so no time for secrets.”

Well, when he put it like that…

“You know what, buddy? You’re right. And--and quite frankly, you deserve to know. So, here goes. You ready?”

“Yeah! Yeah man, I’m ready!”

“Okay.” She took a deep, centering breath. “This all started about 2 years ago when James Olsen sent me an email…”

***

Lena slammed her hand down on the counter as her code was denied again. She _had_ to get inside! Kara was in there, possibly being tortured or worse. She would never forgive herself for leaving her here unprotected.

William put a calming hand on her back and she shrugged it off. She was done with whatever their little arrangement was, and he was the last person she wanted comforting her right now. He had put Kara in danger with Alice, and now he had benched her, which was the reason she was in there alone. Frankly, she wanted nothing more to do with him.

“The Tower has a self-destruct function for events like this,” he said calmly. “I’m calling Langley to activate it.”

Her heart stopped in her chest. “What?! No, you can’t destroy the base, Kara is down there!”

“So is every piece of intelligence we have. Not just on Leviathan, everything!”

She grabbed his arm. “Please, just give her a few more minutes, okay? For me?”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Lena. But you can’t think of Kara. You have to think like a spy.”

“No, I _am_ thinking like a spy,” she growled angrily. “Kara is a member of my team and she has served this country well and for all that she has done, the least that we can do is give her a few more minutes.”

William surveyed her for a moment and then nodded, putting his phone back into his pocket.

***

“So that’s it, buddy. That’s how it happened. So now I’ve got this thing in my brain -- the Intersect, like I told you, and it’s not working. Anything else you wanna know before we die?”

Winn sat quietly for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, just one more thing. Um, so Lena is your handler? So...does that make her your beard? In other words, is your whole relationship a fake? Because...man, that is just...that’s awful. Having to pretend to be in a relationship with someone that you _clearly_ love.”

Kara sighed and hung her head, her glasses sliding down her nose a little at the movement. 

“Lena and I are over.”

Winn scoffed. “Come on, no you’re not. You’re a good liar, Kara, but you’re not _that_ good. You lied to me for years, but I always knew you loved that girl. I mean, I saw the way you looked at her. We all did.”

Kara leaned back against him, letting her head rest against his. He turned and softened his voice. 

“It’s okay. You don’t have to deny it. Come on, dude. Tell me you don’t love Lena.”

Kara felt the tears well up in her eyes again, the catharsis of letting all of this off her chest finally catching up to her as she unlocked the little boxes she had buried deep inside.

“You know what, you’re right, buddy. I do love Lena.” 

Tears began to slide down her cheeks as her chest began to heave with giant breaths. 

“I kept telling myself that I didn’t, that I wouldn’t, I couldn’t...but I do.”

She laughed in desperate relief, her voice wet and constricted as tears rolled down her face and her breaths came out in relieved pants. “Winn, you have no idea how badly I needed to get all of this off my chest. Thank you!”

She could hear his smile as he gently knocked his head backward against hers.

“Get rid of them,” Stein’s voice floated into the room from the hallway. “Kill them, dump the bodies.”

Jefferson, Stein, and two Leviathan agents stepped into the training room and immediately, like the block had finally been removed, Kara began to flash.

She grinned.

“Thank me later buddy,” Winn whimpered. “We’re about to die.”

The two Leviathan operatives lifted them to their feet and removed their handcuffs.

“No we’re not,” Kara said with a grin. 

As soon as the agent removed her cuffs, she brought her elbow up, striking his face and breaking his nose. 

She knocked Stein back with a hard kick to his sternum and then backflipped across the room, bringing her foot down in a kick to the other operative’s face as she landed her flip.

Jefferson rushed her and she landed punch after punch, finally kicking him backward into the display of bo staffs. He jumped up, grabbing a staff and struck. She dodged it and Winn grabbed one off the rack, shouting: “Kara, here!” and tossed it to her. 

“Thanks buddy!” 

She traded blows with Jefferson, cracking him over the head with the bo and knocking him to his knees. She brought her own knee up and grabbed his head, smacking it down hard on the bone. He fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, just as Stein grabbed another bo from the rack and took an offensive stance.

Kara turned and prepared to strike.

A loud martial arts cry was heard and then Winn brought his own staff down on the back of Stein’s head, the man’s body crumpling to the ground in a heap.

Kara looked at him in shock, and he was looking at her the same way.

“That was incredible! You were incredible! You were like Bruce Lee, Van Damme, and Seagal all rolled up into one!”

Kara grinned. Winn looked around at the unconscious agents and shouted proudly, “That’s _my_ best friend!”

He poked Stein with the bo to make sure he was still out. “Yeah, he’s out.”

Kara couldn’t help but laugh. She had her friend back and she was flashing again. She was back on the team.

***

Hank dashed into the Wienerlicious. “Couldn’t get in at the Nerd Herd. We’re locked out.”

William turned to Lena and gave her a grim look. “Time’s up.”

He dialed a number on his phone. _“This is Langley Control.”_

A hissing noise caught their attention and William ended the call as they all scrambled for their weapons, kneeling down with their guns pointed at the entrance to The Tower. 

The door to the walk in freezer opened and Winn walked out, straightening his tie, with Kara right behind him.

“Bag ‘em and tag ‘em, Lena,” he quipped. “Excuse me, I mean: Agent Luthor.”

Lena looked at him in shock. 

Hank rolled his eyes.

***

It was about two hours later, and the team had just finished briefing General Haley. Now it was time to decide what was to be done about Winn, who was sitting alone in an interrogation room.

“We’ll just have to put Winn into Witness Protection,” William said definitively, as if there was no room for argument. “Move him out of National City tonight after dark.”

Kara stared at him in disbelief. “But--wh--wait! Hang on a second! Winn is not going anywhere, okay?”

William gave her a patronising look. “Kara, he knows your secret.”

“Yeah, well so do a lot of people. Alex and Kelly know and you didn’t put _them_ into Witness Protection.”

“Yeah because they’re actual competent adults,” Hank retorted. “Winn’s a moron.”

“It’s just too dangerous,” William continued, “We have no reason to believe we can trust him.”

“Yes we do,” Kara replied adamantly, stepping up to William’s face. “We have 15 reasons why. That's the number years that Winn Schott has been my best friend, and yes he has his faults, granted. But one thing he is, is loyal. And he will never betray me, or my secret.”

William looked back at her, as if searching for something, and they engaged in a little stare-off for a moment, before Lena spoke up.

“She’s right.”

Kara turned to her. “Thank you.”

Looking back at William, she added, “Look, I’m flashing again. I’m a spy again because I have my best friend back. You need the Intersect, and I need him. So Winn Schott is staying exactly where he belongs, which is the National City Nerd Herd.”

William breathed deeply, considering her words, then he picked up his tablet and punched something in. The door to the interrogation room slid open and Winn sauntered into the command center, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Hey buddy, sorry about the wait,” she offered. 

“Nah, no problem!” He elbowed Hank. “Colonel Henshaw...always walking around so angry...should have known you had a big secret!”

Hank groaned. “God help us,” then walked out of the room.

Kara huffed out a laugh and walked over to Winn. “So yeah, everything’s okay.”

“That’s great, I love to hear it,” Winn replied, clapping her on the shoulder. “Okay, so like, am I officially part of the team or…?”

William rolled his eyes and Kara cleared her throat. “Let’s um...let’s walk before we run, huh buddy? And maybe crawl before that.”

She led him up the stairs toward the exit while he chattered excitedly. “You know what? We should celebrate like old times, huh? You know? A little Xbox, pizza and potstickers, and just the two of us!”

Kara laughed, so happy to have him back -- so happy to be able to share her life with her best friend again. “Yeah buddy, just the two of us.”

***

The next night, Kara was down in The Tower with the team as William produced the key they had acquired from their earlier mission, as well as the gold case from Jack’s vault.

“So, now that Leviathan knows about The Tower, does that mean we have to shut the whole operation down?” Kara asked.

William shook his head, a deep frown etched into his forehead. “Stein shut down all communications. They never had a chance to let their superiors know what they found here. That will buy us the time we need to put together a full offensive, and take them down once and for all."

“So then, what’s wrong,” Lena asked curiously. 

William hesitated. “Leviathan had me dead to rights at the hotel yesterday. So why didn’t they kill me? They must have something bigger in mind…”

The group sat quietly for a moment, pondering all the terrible things that could be, until finally William shook his head and spoke up again.

“Alright,” he said, holding up the key. “Who wants to see if this key works?”

He grinned and opened the case, pulling a small, flat circular disk, about 2 inches thick.

Hank frowned. “What is it? A weapon?”

“No, it’s a lockbox. Belonged to a spy I had inside Leviathan. It’s all the intel the agent had. This is what they were looking for yesterday.”

He inserted the key into the odd lockbox and it clicked, the lid sliding back to reveal a handful of disks and a small white envelope. 

He lifted the tray of disks out gently. “With this, we might stand a chance, and one of our best didn’t die in vain.”

He passed the disks to Henshaw and grabbed the envelope, walking away with it. The three of them exchanged looks and Lena followed behind him.

“What’s in the envelope, William?”

He stared at the small bit of stationary in his hand and then handed it over to her. Tipping it into her hand, a diamond ring fell out into her palm.

“She was killed by a Leviathan agent five years ago,” he explained quietly. “Her name was Evelyn Dey. Eve, I called her.”

He stood up from behind the desk he was seated at and walked around to stand in front of her, taking the ring from her hand. 

“We both made the same mistake, Lena. We fell in love with spies.”

He took her hand in his and paused for a moment. “But now, I’m not so sure it was a mistake. I think you were right before. It’s good to know you have something to lose, but it’s also nice to know you have something to come home to.”

He stepped into her space and pulled her into a kiss, his five o'clock shadow scratching across her skin.

Lena pulled away quickly and pushed him back. “William, I told you from the beginning that I didn’t want this. That I didn’t want a relationship.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry about your wife, but whatever it was that you thought was between us...it’s over.”

She turned quickly and left the room, rubbing her chin where his stubble had scraped her sensitive skin and vaguely comparing the kiss to someone else's. 

***

Kara watched Lena follow William out of the room and suppressed the urge to follow. Lena would return in a moment and tell them what he had taken.

She watched as Hank pulled out the Leviathan communicator from the soundproof box he had placed it in and linked it by a secure line into their computer so that they could retrieve any data from it.

Her thoughts traveled from Leviathan and whatever their plan was for William, to whatever was going on between him and Lena, to Winn and how surreal it was that everyone she loved now knew her secret. It was like a ten ton weight had been lifted from her chest and she could finally breathe again. And where Alex and Kelly had told her they didn’t want to know anything, Winn wanted to know _everything_ , and it felt so good to finally be able to tell the whole strange story. Every mission, every daring rescue -- even playing house with Lena in the suburbs. Everything.

As her thoughts turned back to the woman in question, she realised that the agent had been gone for several minutes now and finally she gave into the urge to follow her. As she walked up to the half-open door of William’s office, she heard the tail end of their conversation.

“...I’m not so sure it was a mistake. I think you were right before. It’s good to know you have something to lose, but it’s also nice to know you have something to come home to.”

She stepped forward and watched as William pulled Lena to him and kissed her, his arms wrapping around her back, envelope still in his hand. 

Her stomach turned and she backed away from the door, exiting The Tower as fast as she could, not even stopping to wish Hank a good night.

She needed a drink with her best friend tonight.

***

Hank rolled his eyes as he saw Kara follow Lena out of the room. Kid was a goddamn lost puppy, if you asked him. He began disassembling his gun from the mission so that he could clean it, when the Leviathan communicator he had just hooked up to the computer began to bleep, indicating an incoming call.

Furrowing his brow, he slowly walked over to the device and unplugged it, putting it to his ear.

“Hello?”

There was a pause from the other end of the line and then a familiar voice spoke.

_“Hank Henshaw, it’s been a long time.”_

***


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A figure from Hank’s past has a job for him. Kara makes a well-intended, but grave error. A new drug could help Kara be the Intersect she was always meant to be, but at what cost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yall! So this chapter is wee bit of filler but I needed to set some things in motion here for next week's chapter. I hope you still enjoy it!

_Afghanistan, 1996_

  
  


J’onn Jones stood in his army fatigues, the cool desert night air whipping around him as he waited to be called forward for his commanding officer to give him his next assignment.

“Lieutenant Jones?” The officer called.

He stepped forward and saluted, his heart pounding in his chest. This was the moment of truth. He had worked so hard to move up the ranks, and he hoped that his hard work would have paid off enough to land him with the company he wanted.

His C.O. looked over some pages from his file with his glasses perched on the end of his nose, his brow furrowed. Closing the file, he took off his glasses and looked up at J’onn.

“Thank you for your service, Lieutenant, but you have not qualified for training for Special Operations Command. You’ll be returning home with your unit at 0800 tomorrow.”

He tossed J’onn’s file onto the stack in front of him and dismissed him.

J’onn stood stark still for a moment, his mouth completely dry. His C.O. looked up and saw him still standing there and rolled his eyes.

_“Dismissed_ , Lt. Jones.”

J’onn’s breath escaped him and he saluted, turning on rubbery legs and walking away from the tent. Even with the cold night air, he felt too warm as his heartbeat pounded in his ears. He had never been one for tears or sentimentality, but tonight he almost felt like crying. All he had wanted was to be a soldier, to join S.O.C. and serve his country with honour, and now that was being denied him.

Mortar shells fired in the distance, but there was no cause for alarm. That was just part of the ambience of base camp. The sounds of war lulled him to sleep better than white noise or whale calls.

As he walked back to his tent, he heard someone call his name. He stopped in his tracks. A tall, broad man he recognised as Colonel Oliver Queen stood leaning against a humvee, a container of Tic-Tacs in his hand.

“Tic-Tac?” He asked, offering him the container.

“I’m sorry, Colonel?” He asked in confusion. He wasn't a part of Queen's platoon and he certainly wasn't used to his superior officers speaking candidly with him.

“I know it’s silly,” said Colonel Queen with a smile, “but they remind me of home.”

J’onn stepped forward and took the container from him, shaking out two of the mints into his palm, their white coating starkly contrasting with his dark skin, and popped them into his mouth. He held out the container to return it, but the Colonel put up a hand to refuse.

“Why don’t you go ahead and keep ‘em? I have a feeling you’re gonna be out here a while.”

J’onn looked down and sighed. He wasn’t wrong. He had a lot of thinking to do.

“How would you feel if I told you there was a covert black ops team -- America’s finest snipers, rangers, and men willing to do anything to protect this country -- and that team wanted _you_?”

J’onn smiled slightly. “That--that sounds like a dream come true, sir.”

Queen smiled and put his hands in his pocket. “Then I’d say you have quite a choice to make, son.”

J’onn furrowed his brow, puzzled. Colonel Queen continued, pulling another container of Tic-Tacs out of his pocket.

“You can either go home to your family, or you become the soldier you always dreamed you could be. So tell me, Lieutenant Jones...are you ready to die today?”

***

_National City, Present Day_

“I’m glad you took my call,” said Oliver, leaning against the counter in Hank’s apartment. “In a matter of hours, General Haley is gonna give you and your team a Trace Cell mission to test the CIA’s security system. I need you to pick something up for me while you’re there.”

Hank said nothing, just looked at the man in front of him. The man who had given him the life he had always wanted, but who had also taken away something precious from him. To say he was feeling conflicted was an understatement.

Queen approached him slowly and handed him a double pronged key. “I know you’ll make the right decision…you always do.”

Hank took the key from him and turned it over in his hand, but stayed silent. He would not commit to anything just yet. Whatever Queen was asking him to do would be treason, which Oliver knew. There had to be more to it than that.

***

“2200 hours. NSA agent Hank Henshaw is in his apartment, speaking to an elderly gentleman.”

Winn sat in the bushes in the courtyard, night vision goggles on his head, voice recording app on his phone open and running. Footsteps fell behind him, approaching quickly.

“Footsteps! Coming up behind me! They’re getting closer! Whoever finds this video, please--”

He was pulled to his feet roughly by Kara, who looked at him in exasperation. Yanking the goggles up onto his head, he sighed in relief.

“Oh it’s just you, I thought you were KGB, or maybe a ninja! Although in that case, your footsteps would probably have been a lot quieter, wouldn’t they?”

“Probably, yeah,” said Kara with a roll of her eyes. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just some spywork,” Winn replied, looking pleased with himself. “I think Hank is getting a mission. Wanna listen?”

Kara sighed. “Winn, first of all, if Hank was getting a mission, I would know about it, because _I_ would be getting a mission. And second of all, you’re being kept out of the loop for a reason. Spywork is dangerous, buddy!”

Winn opened his mouth to respond when Hank’s door opened and Kara pulled them both down behind the bushes again. 

Oliver stepped out and shook Hank’s hand. “Pleasure working with you again, old friend.”

Oliver walked out of the courtyard and Kara watched as Hank pushed the door close, his face screwed up in thought.

“Working on what?” She muttered out loud.

***

“Good morning team,” Haley greeted from the monitor in The Tower. “Your task this week is a Trace Cell mission.”

Kara frowned and raised her hand. “Uh, sorry, but what’s a Trace Cell mission?”

“It means spy-proofing our own security,” Lena offered quietly. Kara gave her a half-smile in thanks but said nothing. She still hadn’t quite come to terms with the thought of the agent dating William, and she couldn’t help but be hurt and disappointed by the thought, even if she had no right to be. She had made her decision in Prague, and now Lena was free to be with whomever she wanted. She just wished it wasn’t someone like William.

“The CIA’s most valuable assets are held in a subterranean vault in our Los Angeles facility," Haley continued. "You’ll need to go there and break through 15 levels of security to get there.”

Hank spoke up then. “Will William be joining us?”

“No,” Haley replied, “Agent Dey is in Washington. Agent Luthor, you’ll need to catch a later flight to meet him.”

Kara looked quickly at the agent, who nodded but said nothing. Great, now Lena was flying to D.C. to be with William? As if the situation couldn’t get worse.

“You have your orders. Good luck.” Haley signed off.

“Well, this is just great,” Kara muttered. “So now you’re gonna go meet William in D.C., does everyone have a secret mission I don’t know about?”

Lena looked at her with her brow furrowed but said nothing.

“It’s not a mission, Kara,” Hank sneered. “It’s personal.”

Kara’s heart dropped. “Oh, right, yeah, of course. Well, that would explain why I was kept out of that loop.”

Lena nearly cut her off. “My work is here, Kara, so please let’s just stay focused. We are up against the best security in the world tonight: ours.”

***

Kara, Lena, and Hank dropped out of the air shaft and pulled open the door marked **LEVEL 1**. Kara could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she considered what they might be up against. At least she was flashing again. That would be needed in order to make it through all 15 levels.

Hank led the way down the hall of the dimly lit underground facility and came to a stop at the end of another hallway that branched off to the right.

“That’s the door to level 2,” said Lena, retying her hair in a loose bun. Kara couldn’t help but trace the line of her neck now that it was on display and she quickly had to reprimand herself. They were on a mission and Lena was off limits.

“A hallway,” she quipped sarcastically, “how dangerous. Seems easy enough.” She took a step forward and Lena yanked her back by the back of her kevlar vest.

Hank pulled a quarter from his pocket and tossed it down the hallway. Immediately, darts shot out of the walls at a rapid fire pace.

“Oh.” 

“Here’s where you flash,” Hank growled.

“Just relax, Kara. You’ve got time,” Lena encouraged softly, putting a hand on her shoulder and rubbing in a gentle circular motion. “No one’s banging down the door.”

Kara nodded, trying to ignore the way her skin burned in the place Lena touched her. She stared down the hallway and her eyes crossed as she began to flash.

She gasped as the flash ended and grinned, looking between the two agents. Then she dove forward, executing a perfect acrobatic maneuver as she avoided all of the darts that came firing out of the walls.

She landed without a stumble and punched in the code to open the door for level 2. “Mission accomplished!” She yelled to the agents with a grin.

Hank and Lena joined her at the end of the hall now that the darts were disabled. “Pace yourself, Kara,” Lena reprimanded kindly. “We’ve got 14 more levels.”

***

Two hours later they emerged through the door marked **LEVEL 15** , with Hank clutching his shoulder where he’d nearly dislocated it. The ground had opened up beneath his feet, revealing a 14 story drop down a mine shaft-like passage, and Kara had grabbed him quickly, preventing him from falling.

“Well...that was manageable,” he groaned, rolling his shoulder as they walked through the door.

Lena punched in the code to the vault, breathing heavy from exertion, and the door slid open.

Hank and Kara entered the vault, while Hank ordered Lena to stay behind and watch the door to make sure no guards or booby traps appeared. The last thing they needed was to be trapped inside the vault.

Kara frowned as she followed him in. “Shouldn’t we stick together?”

“No, always have somebody watch your back,” Hank explained. “I’ve got yours, she’s got ours.” He gestured around the corner. “The box we need is around here.”

Kara walked around the corner and located the numbered box they were assigned to break into. Once she was distracted, Hank stepped away, locating the box that Queen had tasked him with robbing. Sliding in the double pronged key Queen had given him, he heard it click and pulled open the box, locating a small case inside. Stuffing it into his bag, he slid the box closed again, tucking the key inside his bag with the case. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Kara staring at him with a puzzled look on her face.

***

Kara broke into the box and pulled out a small bit of stationary with the NSA shield on it and the words, “From The Desk of General Haley -- JOB WELL DONE!” on it. She chuckled at the general’s humour and quickly closed the box, grabbing her bag and moving around the corner to show Hank.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw him tuck something into his bag and close one of the other boxes in the vault. He turned to look at her but said nothing.

“Did--did you just take something out of that box?”

“No,” Hank replied simply.

She scoffed at him incredulously. “I literally just watched you close it.”

Hank said nothing, but pulled his gun out of his waistband and pointed it at her.

Her eyebrows raised along with her hands and she felt her blood pound in her ears. “Hey, if you’re working on some secret side mission, tell me!”

Hank ignored her. “You breathe a word of this to anyone, you’re as good as dead, you understand?”

Kara just stared at him in shock. Was Hank doing something illegal or offbook? Did he really just threaten her? 

Lena stuck her head in the room and saw the two of them staring at each other, but Hank’s back was to her so she could not see the gun drawn on Kara. 

“Hey, is everything okay guys?”

Hank lowered the gun, tucking it into his bag and raised his eyebrows at Kara. The ball was in her court.

“Yeah...yeah everything’s fine.”

***

Kara had stayed up nearly half the night thinking about what she had seen, what Hank had done. 

Hank Henshaw was not a traitor. He was the most patriotic man that she knew. He’d do anything to maintain America’s safety, he’d die for her, for his team, for his country, so it didn’t make sense that he would commit literal treason. And where did that man he was speaking to factor into this? Who was he?

There had to be another explanation.

Her phone chimed and she looked down to see a text from the man who had overtaken her thoughts:

**The Tower, NOW! Remember: Keep your mouth shut.**

She sighed, putting her phone away. Him acting weird wasn’t really helping to quell her fears.

***

“Unfortunately, your mission at the CIA facility was a day too late,” Haley explained from the monitor, as they sat down at the table in front of her. “The vault had already been compromised, and a new drug called Laudenol was stolen.”

“Laudenol?” Kara asked.

“Military scientists were able to create a prototype pill that could suppress emotions in battlefield soldiers -- make them stronger, faster, fearless,” Haley explained.

Kara perked up at those words. “Wait a minute. No fear? Could that help me flash?”

Lena looked at her in alarm. “Well maybe, but then you wouldn’t be able to feel _anything_ , Kara.”

She looked over at Lena’s beautiful face, her kind but concerned smile, and felt her heart twinge. That didn’t sound so bad right about now.

“Right, but I could work...perfectly,” she replied, her voice full of desire.

“Well, we’ll never know unless we get it back,” Haley cut in. “We think this might be an inside job. Only a handful of people knew the Laudenol was being kept in that facility.”

Kara glanced over at Hank and suddenly it dawned on her, what was really happening here. _Of course._ This was a test. A test of loyalty. They weren't just testing the security of the facility, they were testing the security of their agents. To see if she’d cover for her teammate out of loyalty to them, over loyalty to the country.

“Ohhhh,” she said slowly, beginning to chuckle. “Okay, I see what’s going on here. I get it now. You’re good, General! You guys are good. This is a test, right?” 

Hank turned to look at her and growled lowly. “Kara….”

She grinned. “No, no I get it! ‘Kara, will you betray your country or will you turn in your friend and partner, Hank Henshaw for stealing the pill?’”

She laughed out loud, oblivious to the shocked gazes of Haley and Lena. “I’ll play ball: guilty! He did it!” She pointed to Hank and chuckled.

There was silence in the command center and from the monitor and then Haley leaned forward and asked, “Are you _positive_ you saw Colonel Henshaw take the pill, Ms. Danvers?”

“Yeah!” She said with a grin.

More silence.

She turned to Lena, who was looking between her and Hank in shock, and then to Hank who was glaring daggers at her, his chest rising and falling quickly.

“...No…” she corrected, realising that this was not, in fact, a test. That she was actively incriminating Hank in this. “No, actually I would--I would not use the word ‘positive’. It was very poorly lit in that...um…” She trailed off with a nervous chuckle. “I mean, I’m--I’m wrong half the time, so…”

Silence fell again and then General Haley turned her gaze to Hank. 

“Colonel Henshaw, would you care to respond?”

Hank looked around the room silently and Lena slowly pulled her gun from her waistband.

Kara, noticing the action, jumped to her feet. “Whoa! Let’s just all take a breath here, okay? Hank Henshaw is one of the most loyal spies out there! He would never do anything to jeopardise the CIA! Hank, tell them!” She pleaded with the agent.

Hank was silent for a moment, just staring at her, expressionless. Then he stepped forward to the monitor.

“With all due respect, General, I will exercise my right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Kara gaped at him in shock. “What--Hank, what are you doing?”

Haley’s mouth was in a thin line when she addressed Lena. “Agent Luthor, please relieve the Colonel of his weapon.”

Lena stood, her gun trained on Hank as she stepped toward him. His hand slowly moved to the pistol in his waistband and removed it.

“Hank, you want to tell me what’s going on,” she asked quietly.

Hank merely set his pistol down on the table and said nothing. Lena escorted him to a cell at gunpoint, while Kara stood in the command center, watching from the surveillance cameras.

Hank Henshaw was a traitor. Something was very wrong.

***

Kara entered the Nerd Herd and located Winn, pulling him into his tiny office and closing the door. “I need your help buddy.”

“The answer’s already yes. I already queued up our Korra marathon for tonight.”

Kara shook her head. “This is not about that. This is,” she lowered her voice, “ _spy related._ ”

Winn’s eye’s widened and he nodded for her to continue. 

“Did you happen to record Hank’s conversation with that guy?”

Winn narrowed his eyes. “That depends…”

Kara waved her hands. “No, don’t worry! You’re not in trouble. I actually need your help!”

“Aw sweet! I knew you’d come around! Yeah, sure. What do you need, audio or video?”

Kara gaped at him. Maybe he was spy material. “Whatever you’ve got, buddy.”

He pulled out his phone and opened his cloud file, downloading the video from the night before. He fast forwarded until the man entered the apartment, his back to the camera. It wasn’t until he was inside of Hank’s apartment and in front of the window that Kara saw his face and began to flash.

The man was Colonel Oliver Queen, dishonorably discharged from the United States Marine Corp, and known member of Leviathan.

“Holy crap.”

“What is it?! I want in!” Winn yelled, bouncing on his toes.

“Trust me, Winn. In _this_ instance, the less details you know, the better.”

He deflated, and Kara jumped up to leave. 

“Call me if you need me,” he called sadly to her as she left.

She raced toward Hank’s apartment, where a CIA team was searching for the missing Laudenol. Lena stood in the corner of the room supervising the search, and Kara made her way over to her.

“Hey, I just flashed,” she said, pulling her further away from the agents. “Hank is being played. His old commanding officer is a guy named Oliver Queen. High up in Special Ops. He was dishonorably discharged when he was found to have joined Leviathan!”

Lena paled. “What?!”

“Hank doesn’t know anything,” she continued, “We’ve gotta talk to him and tell him who this guy really is.”

“We can’t. Hank committed treason, and he’s still refusing to talk.” She sighed uncomfortably. “They’re moving him to a black site in Thailand, outside of U.S. torture jurisdictions.”

Kara’s heart pounded. “When?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

She inhaled deeply. “Okay, well then we have to break him out before then and clear his name.”

Lena was silent for a moment and then gave her a hard look, right in her eyes. “If we do this, and we get caught, we’re gonna be tried for treason and you’re gonna lose everything and you’re not going to get a chance to be a real spy. Is that what you want?”

She considered Lena’s words, but there was really only one answer. 

“Lena...it’s Hank.”

Lena smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

***

They discovered that Hank was being held in the same subterranean facility that they had been tasked with breaking into just yesterday. Lena pushed through the Level 1 door and Kara followed behind, confident in her ability to get through the building wavering, knowing that they had exposed all the flaws in the system.

“You sure you’re okay with missing your flight to D.C.?” She asked Lena as they made their way down the hall.

“Yeah. William can wait, Hank can’t. Let’s do this.”

“So now we just have to break through the security measures that we spy-proofed?”

“Well, it’s only been 24 hours,” Lena replied. “I’d be surprised if they fixed anything.”

Kara cracked her neck. “Alrighty then, let’s do this.”

She flashed on the hallway, quickly flipping to avoid the darts, but was knocked to the ground by a sheer, extremely clean glass barrier in the middle of the hallway. She sank to the ground with a groan.

“Kara, are you okay?!” Lena called, running down the hall to her.

Lena helped her climb to her feet, shaking off the shock of the collision. “Whoa...well, that wasn’t there before.”

An alarm began to sound, a red light pulsing down the corridor and a group of agents flooded into the corridor behind them, led by a short fellow with dark hair and tan skin. 

“Alert the General,” he ordered the agents, swiping his badge to turn off the alarm. “We’ve captured two infiltrators.”

He turned to the pair, a smug grin on his face. “I see you’ve encountered my new security measures.”

Kara and Lena exchanged a look and Kara recognised her ‘just go with it’ face as Lena began to applaud vigorously. “Well done, really well done.”

“Yeah, excellent work,” Kara added.

“You deserve a medal for adjusting all of these security measures so quickly!”

Kara pulled out her phone and tapped on the blank screen, putting it to her ear. “Yes, General Haley? It’s Kara. Yes, the spy-proofing is _excellent_. Who to thank?”

She looked up at the gentleman before her who looked astonished. “Uhh, Cisco Ramone!”

She grinned and turned back to her fake phone call. “Did you get that, General? Ramone? Okay, great.” She ‘hung up’ her call.

“Well then, I’m Agent Dawson, and this is my partner, Agent Luthor,” said Kara, the two of them shaking Cisco’s hand. He grinned and turned to the agents behind him, gesturing for them to leave them.

“Please excuse my condescending tone earlier, I wasn’t informed you would be coming, but then I guess that’s sort of the whole point.” He fidgeted nervously. “Do you like what I did on Level 1?”

Lena gasped dramatically. “Oh _very_ impressive.”

“Very,” Kara added. “In fact, I think we’d both love to see what you’ve done with level 15.”

Cisco looked positively giddy at having his work appreciated and walked past them to swipe his key card, opening the door to level 2. 

“Well, let me show you! I’ll give you the tour!”

Kara and Lena exchanged a small smile and followed him through the door.

***

“So, that was level 14, and here is level 15,” Cisco informed them, pulling open the door. “I’m so glad you’re pleased with my new security measures. You know, I’m kind of your biggest fan,” he said turning to Kara.

“Really?” She said in shock.

“Yeah! I read and file all of your mission reports! Like, remember when you reverse engineered a cure to that bioweapon and kissed Colonel Henshaw, only to realise later that it was all for naught?” He chuckled. “That must have been exciting and scary at the same time, huh?”

Lena raised an amused eyebrow and Kara grimaced. “You know, can we just skip the details for now? We’ll get into that later...right now I’m really interested in how you’ve secured this holding cell.”

Cisco puffed out his chest proudly. “I’m the newest security measure. I have the only keycard in the whole building.” He pulled it out of his jacket pocket. “This card is the only thing that stands between the bad guys and the holding cell.”

Kara and Lena exchanged a look and Lena stepped forward.

“Cisco, we’re gonna need that keycard,” she said kindly.

“But it--” Realisation seemed to dawn on him that they were not in fact here to applaud his work. “Oh no. I’ll swallow the keycard if I have to!”

An alarm sounded distracting Cisco, and Lena took the opportunity to knock him out, yanking the card out of his hand.

“Someone’s coming, we have to hurry,” she said, swiping the keycard and opening the menu to find Hank’s cell.

“There,” Kara said, pointing at the screen. 

Lena hit the button to open his cell door, when a blast from inside the cell knocked the camera out.

“Oh my god!”

They raced down the corridor and into Hank’s cell to find him unsteadily rising to his feet, the debris from his cell wall lying all around him. Behind him, standing in the crumbling entrance he had created, was Oliver Queen.

“Don’t take another step,” he ordered. “We just want the Colonel.”

Kara’s breathing quickened. “Hank, you don’t understand. Oliver is not who you think he is, he’s part of Leviathan!”

“Let’s go, Hank!” Oliver ordered.

Hank stumbled a little as he turned to Kara and Lena. A small groan escaped from his throat. “I know,” he muttered, and then climbed through the improvised door Queen had made.

Kara frowned, her eyes narrowing. Hank knew Queen was with Leviathan? And he was still working with him? This didn’t make any sense unless Hank was also Leviathan, and she knew that wasn’t true. She had to get to the bottom of this.

*** 

They sprinted up the stairs to the ground level and exited the facility in total silence, both thinking of what had just happened and what it all meant. 

Finally, as they escaped into the cool L.A. night air, Kara spoke. 

“I can’t believe that Hank is working with Leviathan. What are we supposed to do now?”

“We just broke out of a CIA facility, Kara. We’ve got to get out of here first. We’ll worry about all that later.”

They ran down the sidewalk and as they passed a parked van, the passenger door opened quickly, knocking Kara to the ground. An agent jumped out and threw a bag over Lena’s head and tossed her into the back, before doing the same to Kara.

***

Kara came to some time later and found herself bound to a chair, bag still over her head. She could hear very little, and see even less.

As she tried to get acclimated to her surroundings, she heard someone struggling next to her.

“Lena?”

“Kara? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m--”

Footsteps echoed from behind her and a moment later, both she and Lena had the black bags yanked off their heads.

Kara blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the bright lights in the room. As she got her bearings, she realised they were in the command center of The Tower...and General Haley was standing right in front of them.

Not the General Haley projected on the monitors. The _real_ General Haley, in the flesh.

“When three of my agents are arrested for treason within 24 hours, it reflects poorly on me,” she began.

“Look, General,” Kara began, quickly overcoming her shock, “I know how this looks, but Hank was--”

“You don’t know Hank Henshaw,” Haley cut in, “not the way you think. His real name is J’onn Jones.” 

She grabbed a tablet from the table next to her and tapped on it, bringing Hank’s file up on the screen.

“We’ve unsealed his file and this is what we’ve learned. J’onn Jones faked his death in Afghanistan in 1996 -- the same day that Hank Henshaw was recruited to NSA black ops by a Colonel Oliver Queen.”

“Queen must have recruited him again, but this time for Leviathan,” Lena replied.

“And it’s crucial that the Laudenol doesn’t fall into their hands,” Haley replied, nodding. “The only reason you two aren’t in federal prison right now is because I have a mission only you can accomplish…”

She gave them both a hard glare and lowered her voice menacingly.

“Find and capture Colonel Hank Henshaw...dead or alive.”

***

Winn walked through the courtyard to Kara’s window, ready for their Legend of Korra marathon. A gardener was out in the courtyard, trimming the hedges and bushes, a bandana pulled up over his face to keep the trimmings out of it.

Winn smiled as he walked past, but was stopped as the gardener turned and held the large shears to his throat. “Don’t say a word,” the man said threateningly.

Winn peered up into the masked face and his mouth dropped open. “Hank?” He looked around the courtyard and lowered his voice. “I get it, this is some kinda mission, right?

Hank sighed and pulled his mask down. “Yeah, that’s it. How would you like to be a part of a very important, very secret mission?”

Winn’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! Yeah dude! Do I--can I get a cool call name like---like The Condor? Guardian? Goldfinger?”

Hank grimaced. “Sure.”

He gripped Winn’s shirt tightly, yanking the shorter man closer to him. "Now here's what I need you to do..."

***

“Three years. Three years of missions, training, being his friend…how can all of that have been a lie?”

Kara was angry. She could feel it simmering in her gut as she loaded bullets into magazines for Lena. More than that, she was hurt. Hurt that Hank had apparently lied to them for so long. Hurt that General Haley had given the option of killing Hank in order to stop the Laudenol from falling into Leviathan’s hands. They would never take that route, but it hurt all the same for it to even be an option.

“I don’t know,” Lena replied, loading the filled magazines into her guns of choice. “Some people change. You move forward as a spy and the line between what’s right and wrong becomes more and more grey. You don’t know what to believe in...or who to believe in.”

Kara frowned and exhaled deeply, packing away the box of ammo. 

“I thought _you_ had changed,” Lena continued after a moment, not meeting her eyes.

She snapped her head up, her attention solely on the woman in front of her. “What do you mean?”

Lena shifted uncomfortably and began to play with her fingers. “Look, I know that you want to be the perfect spy, and I know what it means to you...and what you’ve sacrificed to get there.” She looked up into Kara’s eyes, her multicoloured gaze boring into Kara’s soul. “But please don’t lose that woman that I met all those years ago. Don’t give up on the things that make you great.”

She gave a soft smile and then grabbed a pistol, passing it over to Kara, who pushed it back to her, grabbing a tranq gun instead.

“I’ll always be that person, Lena.”

She strapped on a shoulder holster around her kevlar and put two tranq guns in it, sticking some extra darts into the pocket of her vest.

She stopped for a moment and looked up at Lena, at the woman who had changed her world. “Lena, I--”

“We should probably focus on finding the Laudenol,” Lena cut in, sending her a clear message that there would be no discussion of feelings right then. “So, the only reason Queen would go to all that trouble to break Hank out would be if he still didn’t have it.”

“Which means if we get to it before Hank does, we’ve got a shot at catching him.”

Lena nodded. “Yeah, except there’s nothing left in his apartment.”

Kara thought for a moment. “What about the Nerd Herd?”

Lena shook her head. “No, Hank’s smarter than that. He knows he would never get past those surveillance cameras undetected,” she said, gesturing toward the screens where those very cameras were playing their footage. Kara looked over at them, lost in thought.

“He would have to use someone,” Lena continued thoughtfully.

Kara frowned in thought as she continued to stare at the screens without seeing. She vaguely noticed Winn enter the store, looking over both shoulders as if someone was watching him. A lightbulb clicked on in her head.

“And that someone would have to be desperate, stupid, or just plain willing to do anything to impress him…” She walked over to the screens and grinned.

Lena followed her gaze and came to the realisation not a moment later. They ran up the stairs into the Nerd Herd.

Kara quickly dashed out into the store, her height allowing her to locate Winn over in the movies. As she came to a halt at the end of the aisle, she saw him close the case of a movie and furrowed her brow. 

“Planet of the Apes, huh?” She asked, walking up to him. “You planning on watching that alone?”

Winn jumped at the sound of her voice and did his best to recover. “Yeah...yeah, you know me. Can’t get enough POTA.” He turned to walk away nonchalantly.

“Liar,” Kara replied. “You hate the original because their upper lips never moved.”

Winn turned back to her, a denial on his lips, but upon seeing her face, he broke. “Ahhh I know dude! It’s just so unrealistic!”

“Winn,” she began, her voice serious as a heart attack, “did Hank ask you to come here and get something for him?”

“What?” He yelped. “No! Never!”

“Really, is that so? And could that something be in the case that you’re holding right now?”

“That--that is _absurd!_ Now--now you’re just making stuff up,” he scoffed incredulously. 

Kara looked around for witnesses and then quickly pinned him against the rack. 

“Okay! Okay!” He cried, scrunching up his face in a flinch. “Man, this is my first mission and I don’t want to blow it! Hank told me I can’t tell you anything. And I won’t! I’m a rock!”

Kara thought for a moment. “If you give me that movie right now, I promise that I will let you play Galaga...on the CIA computer.”

Winn’s eyes widened. “In The Tower?”

She nodded. 

“Okay,” he replied excitedly, handing her the DVD. 

“You’re making the right choice,” she replied, returning to Lena.

***

Kara opened the door to Hank’s apartment and gingerly stepped through the door. This was where Winn was supposed to meet him to bring him the pill. Hank would be here somewhere.

The door pushed closed behind her as she entered and she saw Hank step out from his place behind the door, gun in hand.

“Where’s Winn?” He asked, grip tightening on the pistol. “You convinced the little runt to give you the case, didn’t you?”

Kara said nothing, just circled around slowly, putting Hank’s back to the doors that led out onto his patio. Lena would be entering from there.

“I knew he was weak,” Hank continued, “Tell me where it is now.”

He raised the gun and pointed it at Kara’s chest. “Don’t make me do this, Kara.”

She breathed out a ragged breath and saw Lena quietly pushing open the door to the patio, gun raised. 

“Don’t shoot,” she said, more to Lena than to Henshaw.

“Give me the case and I won’t have to,” he replied.

“I believed in you,” she said, glaring at him, “I trusted you.”

Hank stepped forward, pressing the barrel of his gun into her chest, right above her heart. “Kara,” he pleaded quietly.

“I know everything, Hank. I know that you used to be J’onn Jones. I know that you work for Oliver Queen. And that you stole the Laudenol for Leviathan. The only thing I don’t know is why.”

Hank stared at her, his gaze flicking between her eyes as he seemed to consider something. Behind him, Lena crept silently closer. The gun against Kara’s chest began to slide down until it completely fell away.

He turned and saw Lena standing behind him, gun drawn, and turned back to Kara. 

“J’onn Jones had…. _I_ had a fiancée. And now she thinks I’m dead. But if I don’t turn over the Laudenol to Leviathan…they’re gonna kill her.”

***

They were sitting in Hank’s apartment as he passed around an old photobooth reel of him and an attractive woman with copper skin and a brilliant smile.

“Her name is Megan Moore. Twenty-five years ago she was the girl I was gonna marry. The love of my life.”

Kara looked at him in surprise. She would never in a million years have thought Hank would be one to ever walk down the aisle.

“To be a spy, to protect our country, I had to give all that up. I had to give up my life. And now she’s going to die because of a decision that I made.”

“No,” Lena interjected, “we’re not going to let that happen.”

“If I don’t deliver the Laudenol to Queen’s location in the next hour, they’re going to kill her.”

Kara stood up. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go save her!”

“If I don’t show up at the meet, Oliver will know something’s wrong,” Hank replied, running his hand over his cropped hair.

“Well, then you and I will go to the meet and Kara will go to Megan,” Lena replied, rising to her feet.

“Yeah, Lena’s right, I’ll go,” she replied, “just give me the address and I’ll sneak her out of there, put her in a safe house. I will protect her, Hank. I promise.”

“You could be charged with treason, Kara. Hell, you didn’t even know I was J’onn Jones until today--”

“I don’t care who you were,” Kara cut in, “I know who you _are_. And you’re not in this alone.”

“Queen still expects you at the meet. What are we gonna do?” Lena asked, hands on her hips.

Hank pulled out his pistol and cocked it with vigor. “Let’s go to a meeting,” he growled.

***

Hank pulled into the gravel drive of the cabin and grabbed a cigar and a matchbook before exiting the vehicle. One of Queen’s men immediately grabbed him and shoved him against the hood of his SUV, frisking him.

“I’m alone, and I’m unarmed,” he sighed. “All I’ve got is this here Cuban. You mind?”

The guard nodded. “Smoke it.”

Hank pulled out the matchbook and ripped one off, striking it and lighting the cigar. He folded it between his fingers and then dropped it on the ground, heading inside the cabin.

Closing the door, he saw Queen sitting behind a desk in the main room. 

“Hello J’onn,” he greeted, “You got the Laudenol?”

Hank pulled the case out of his pocket and tossed it to him.

Queen smirked. “I knew I could count on you. Good soldiers always follow orders.” He rose from his seat, turning the case over in his hands. “You know, you wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d done what I told you to twenty-five years ago. To let her go -- stop caring.”

He pulled open the case and looked down into the compartment where the pill sat. 

Only it wasn’t a pill. 

“A Tic-Tac? What the fuck is this?!”

“Your breath stinks,” Hank replied darkly.

Queen tossed the case aside and stepped around the desk to stand in front of Henshaw, his chest rising and falling with angry breaths. 

“You think you’re just gonna walk out of here alive? I’ve got five men outside. The one thing I always taught you: Make sure you have someone watch your back.”

Hank smirked and nodded. “I know.”

Outside the cabin, Lena lowered herself to the ground from under the chassis of the SUV. She glanced over at the folded matchbook that Hank had dropped and saw five matches folded up into a standing position.

_Five against one._

Quietly, quietly, quietly, Lena pulled her gun from her waistband, suppressor attached, and waited until the feet of the thugs came into her line of sight.

_One, two, three._ Three silenced shots rang out, and three guards fell to the ground, clutching their wounded legs. She rolled out from under the vehicle and made quick work of shooting the last two, before circling around the SUV and putting a bullet in each of the three wounded Leviathan agents.

Inside, Oliver walked back around the desk, thinking hard. He turned back to Hank, opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and flipped the desk at the man, jumping up and grabbing a rafter, landing a kick to Hank’s temple.

Hank rallied quickly, grabbing Queen and slamming his head against the thick wooden leg of the overturned desk, then an elbow to the face, and finally tossing him across the room. Queen jumped up and fought back, punch for punch, until Hank caught him with a blow to the temple and he fell back into a support beam in the middle of the room.

Hank grabbed his throat, cutting off his air supply.

“You didn’t think this through,” Oliver choked out, “You kill me? Megan will die.”

“You’d never call them off anyway,” Hank growled.

“You’re right,” he grinned sadistically.

Hank squeezed harder, lifting him off the floor, his back sliding up the beam. Lena burst through the door, her white tank top covered in grease and dirt, her gun raised.

Hank squeezed and squeezed, enjoying the choking, gasping gurgles coming from Oliver’s face. Then, quick as lightning, he snapped the man’s neck, and dropped him to the ground.

He turned to Lena who was staring at him in shock. 

“They’re already at the house,” he growled. “Kara is going to need our help.”

***

Simultaneously across town, Kara bounded up the steps and knocked on Megan’s door. It opened after a moment and a very attractive woman stepped out, drying her hands on a towel.

“Hi, uh, Ms. Moore? I’m with the gas company,” she gestured to the fake gas company uniform she had donned, “I was just checking your meter out back and I thought I detected a--” she sniffed quickly -- “yeah I do detect a gas leak, I’m sorry to tell you, so I need you to come with me. Come on!”

She grabbed Megan’s hand and pulled her out the door, ignoring the shocked little “Oh!” that the woman gave. As she pulled her down the pavement, a black SUV rolled to a stop out front and she stopped short, turning to Megan. “Back inside the house! Back inside!”

Megan looked at her in confusion. “But I thought you said--”

“Ignore everything I said before. The gas leak is actually outside the house!”

Megan looked at her like she was nuts, which to be fair, seemed plausible given the situation. “What?!”

“Please ma’am, it’s my job to smell these things,” she replied, tapping her nose. “I’ve been doing it for years. The whole cul-de-sac could BLOW! So I need you back inside! Back inside! Inside! Inside!”

She shunted her along the walkway and back up the front steps, pulling the door closed behind them.

“Okay, um...this is -- this is getting kind of weird,” Megan asked nervously. “Who are you really?”

“I’m so sorry. I promise I’m not crazy,” Kara replied. She saw a shadow appear through the curtains around the side of the house and paled. She looked behind Megan and saw a coat closet and grimaced.

“I’m _really_ sorry but this is for your own good.” She put her hand over Megan’s mouth and pushed her backward into the closet, ramming a chair under the handle so that she could not escape.

A knock rang out on the front door, followed by the jiggling of the door handle and Kara readied herself for attack.

“Gas company,” said the voice behind the door.

“I’m the gas company,” she muttered to herself. She brought her watch up to her mouth. “Guys, how far away are you?”

_“Five minutes or so,”_ came Lena’s voice in her earpiece. _“Look, anything immediate, you’re gonna have to handle yourself.”_

Kara groaned as the Leviathan agent rattled the door handle again. “Well, everything is immediate!”

_“Well then you have to flash!”_

“I can’t flash, there’s too many of them!” She cried, glimpsing the shadows of several agents surrounding the house.

There was silence on the other end of the line and then --

_“Take the pill, Kara.”_ Hank’s voice came through crystal clear.

“What pill?” Kara asked in confusion.

_“It’s in your right pocket. I slipped it to you to be sure Queen couldn’t get it. Laudenol was developed to help calm emotions, to eliminate fear. Kara, it can make you the Intersect you were always meant to be.”_

Kara reached into her pocket and sure enough, there was the capsule. She stared at it for a moment and then the agent at the door beat on it once again and the decision was made for her. 

Opening the capsule, she dumped the drug directly into her mouth for quicker activation, and prepared for action.

The kitchen door burst open behind her and an agent entered, pointing a gun at her. “Don’t move,” he ordered.

She raised her hands and let him push her into the living room. The agent claiming to be from the gas company burst in, kicking the door off its hinges, followed by several others. He stepped up to her and she laughed nervously.

“I just checked the meter, so everything’s fine. You can go.”

He smiled facetiously and then struck her across the face with his pistol. She fell to the floor, dazed, while the Leviathan agents went to the closet Megan was unhappily hidden in and yanked it open, pulling her out.

“Thank you so much,” she said as they led her into the living room where Kara lay. “Wait---who are you people? You’re not from the gas company!”

The agent struck her in the head too, and she crumpled to the ground, and all at once it was like a wave of calm had washed over Kara. 

There was no anxiety. 

No insecurity.

No fear.

As Megan crumpled to the floor, Kara knew she needed to flash, and so she did, without thought or hesitation. Jumping to her feet from where she was lying on the ground, she turned to the Leviathan agents with a small grin.

“I’m not afraid,” she said quietly, “of any of you.”

The agent lifted his gun and fired, but the bullet traveled as if in slow motion and Kara easily dodged it. Grabbing the agent’s wrist, she twisted it until he dropped the pistol and punched him in the face, before throwing him headfirst into the banister of the staircase.

The next one attacked her and it was like the Intersect room all over again -- that first Neo-like moment. Each strike from the agent easily dodged like she had advance warning of what they would do.

There were no qualms about damage, no time to worry about whether or not these men would recover from their injuries. All there was was the next punch, the next kick, defeating these agents who threatened her and her mission.

As she threw the third man to the ground, a fourth entered and fired at her and she matrixed herself backward, feeling the wind of the bullet as it passed her. Once upright, she jumped up and spun, kicking a small bronze statue from the mantle right into the man’s head, knocking him to the ground.

A fourth, a fifth, and then a sixth agent were no match for the unfettered Intersect, unencumbered by those pesky emotions that blocked her for so long.

As a seventh attacked her, she dodged his knife and brought the heel of her hand up into his nose, breaking it. He fell backward and she advanced on him, punching him in the face. He retaliated, bringing his fist toward her face, but it never connected. She stopped his momentum, grabbing his bicep and twisting his shoulder out of its socket as he screamed in agony.

Grabbing his throat, she forced him back into the wall and began to squeeze, lifting him off the ground, his back sliding up the wall as he choked and gurgled.

The squeak of Lena’s boots on the hardwood floor rang out as she skidded to a halt and took in the sight before her.

Kara, her large hand wrapped around a man’s throat, squeezing the life out of him with no intention of stopping. 

Her heart dropped. This is exactly what she had been afraid of.

“Kara! Kara stop!” She shouted over the man’s choked gasps. Kara turned her head slowly, -- lifeless, narrow, glaring blue eyes seeing without recognising. 

Her Kara -- the sunshiney Kara that loved potstickers and hated violence, the Kara that had pushed the pistol back to her and assured she would never change -- was nowhere to be found. 

“Kara, you have to stop! _Now!_ ” 

Recognition seemed to dawn on her the longer she stared at Lena, her narrow, dark eyes opening wider into a brighter, watery blue, and a moment later she loosened her grip, dropping the man to the floor, panting as she surveyed what her actions had almost done.

Kara stared down at her own trembling hands in abject horror, then turned to Lena, who was staring at her with wide eyes, like she didn’t recognise the person standing in front of her.

What had she done?

***

Hank knelt over Megan’s unconscious body and took a moment to study her face. She was just as beautiful as she had been 25 years ago, if not more so. 

As he reached down to feel her pulse, he allowed himself the mercy of tracing a trembling finger across her jawline, before feeling for the steady thud of her heart.

How different would things have been if he had made a different choice all those years ago. Who would he be now?

_Afghanistan, 1996_

_“I can’t come home yet, Megan. I’ve got one more mission,” he said into the phone, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. “I think I’m really gonna be able to help people.”_

_“You don’t have to explain,” came her calm, sweet voice from the other end of the line. “You love what you do and you’re good at it.”_

_“I just want you to know, in case something happens to me, I love--”_

_“Listen,” Megan cut in, cutting him off, “you’re never one to get emotional with me, so don’t let your guard down now. That way you can get back to me in one piece. Got it?”_

_He smiled, unable to contain the tears that ran down his face. “Yes ma’am.”_

_Queen grabbed the receiver from his hand and replaced it in the cradle, ending their final conversation. “Tonight at 2200, Lieutenant J’onn Jones will be killed in battle. He’ll die a hero and be given a hero’s funeral. From this point on, your name is Hank Henshaw.” He handed him a new set of dogtags, inscribed with his new name. “Make it a good life, soldier.”_

Megan’s eyes flitted open slowly, taking him in with a puzzled frown.

“Do I know you,” she asked groggily. He frowned, but did not answer, helping her up and over to the couch. “The authorities will be arriving soon, Ms. Moore.”

Hank turned around to leave but Kara stopped him in the doorway. “Hank, wait! You can’t just--”

“What’s dead is dead,” he muttered softly. “It’s too late now.”

***

The trio sat around the table in the command center as General Haley stood before them.

“Despite the success of the mission, Colonel Henshaw, you abused your privileged position and if you were anyone else, you would be right back in jail. But you are not just anyone, and I’m about to give you your second second chance, which is two more than most people get.”

“Thank you, General,” he murmured.

“A second chance as a civilian,” she finished.

Kara saw Hank’s shoulders sag minutely. “But--but General, Hank has given his entire life to this country, I mean surely you can’t just make him start over?”

Haley remained unmoved. “He’s done it once before, he shouldn’t have a problem doing it again.”

She swallowed hard, and as her mask slipped ever so slightly, Kara caught a glimpse of the disappointment that lay there. 

“For the final time, you are dismissed,” she said to Hank.

Hank stood up and saluted to her, but instead of saluting back, she stuck out a hand to shake. “Good luck, Hank.”

He shook her outstretched hand and dropped it, still standing at attention.

“Ms. Danvers,” Haley said, turning to her, “Please escort Mr. Henshaw off of government property.”

Kara swallowed and rose, following Hank out of command and up the stairs to the exit.

As they left, Haley turned to Lena. “I want to commend you, Agent Luthor, for your work with the Intersect. She seems to need you less and less.”

Lena swallowed hard, her face impassive. “Yes, Kara has...certainly changed and she is well on her way to becoming the perfect spy.”

Haley smiled. “A while back, you requested a transfer out of National City and I haven’t forgotten. There’s an empty seat on my flight back to Washington, if you’d still like to go. We could discuss it on the way. I leave in an hour, if you’d like to join me, Agent Luthor.”

She smiled and left the room, leaving Lena much to think about.

***

Kara and Hank drove back to their apartment complex in silence, and Hank didn’t even say anything when she followed him into his apartment instead of going to her own.

Perhaps he needed the company in a way he couldn’t articulate.

Kara looked around the empty living room as he began repotting one of his bonsai trees that had been knocked over during the search and seizure.

“Well,” she said, breaking the silence, “this is a great apartment. It’ll be great for civilian life. I mean, take a look around,” she gestured to the empty living room that held only a couch and a desk, “you’ve got, uh, a nice couch.”

Hank said nothing, just continued potting his tree, his back to Kara.

She pulled the photobooth pictures out of her pocket and fingered the edge, looking at the happy faces smiling up at her.

“You know, you can still go back.”

Hank sighed heavily. “The General made the terms of my dismissal crystal clear.”

Kara tossed the picture onto the desk next to his hand. “I was talking about Megan,” she replied softly.

Hank picked up the picture and caressed the edge gently with his finger.

“She lives right around here, man. It’s fate, if you ask me.”

Hank stood upright and turned slowly, and when he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

“You know, I made my decision between love and love of country a long time ago. And it was the right decision for me.”

He swallowed and looked down at the ground, and when he looked up, his eyes were softer and more open than Kara had ever seen them. “Now you have to decide if that’s the right decision for you.”

Kara looked at him in surprise and he paused, considering his words.

“Luthor’s a good woman, Kara. It’s still not too late.”

***

Lena sat in a cab, the lights of the Capitol building shining through the taxi’s windows as she made her way to her hotel, trying desperately to keep her thoughts off of Kara and the way she had nearly snapped that agent's neck. She hadn't thought that the blonde was even capable of that kind of violence and it made bile rise up in her throat every time she saw those cold, lifeless eyes. 

“D.C.’s beautiful this time of year,” the cabbie said brightly. “You from this area?”

She pulled her focus away from the bright lights and gave him a thin smile. 

“No…but I’m thinking of moving here.”

***


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara faces a final spy exam of sorts, testing all of her skills. But how far is she willing to go to be a real spy? 
> 
> Lena is given an agonising task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! This is kind of a big one and I hope I did it justice!

Kara sprinted around the back of the train car after the Leviathan agent and fired a warning shot up in the air, the bullet making a pinging sound as it ricocheted off the side of the caboose.

The agent stumbled but kept running, her feet crunching on the gravel between the trains. Kara put on a burst of speed and pursued her as she weaved in and out of the tracks.

The agent’s foot caught a railroad tie and she flew forward with a yelp, faceplanting into the gravel. She rolled over onto her back and sat up, looking up at Kara in fear as the blonde approached her, gun pointed at her chest.

“No no, don’t do it! Don’t shoot me...please! Don’t you see, this is exactly what they want!”

Kara took a step closer, trying to stop the tremble of her hands as she pointed the gun at the agent’s heart.

“I gave you a chance,” she replied, her voice shaking slightly.

“Please,” the woman pleaded, “Please, I had no choice.”

Kara stared down at the woman, finger on the trigger, gathering the courage to do what needed to be done.

**_BANG!_ **

***

_Three Days Earlier_

Nia crept around the endcap display, laser pistol in hand, as she avoided Brainy.

Things had been slow in the store, so they had had to get creative with their boredom. Laser tag during business hours is what they had come up with.

She rounded the corner into the next aisle and came face to face with the boyfriend she was trying to avoid. Ducking back quickly, she ran smack into the only customer in the store.

Nia fell backward, crashing into a display case and landed on her back. Brainy stood over her, gun pointed at her chest.

“Please Brainy,” she pleaded, “it’s me -- it’s Nia -- you don’t have to do this!”

“No,” he replied, stone cold, “but I think I will enjoy it.” 

He pulled the trigger and a red ‘x’ appeared on Nia’s vest.

She yanked it off and stood up, shoulder checking him as she walked by. “You’re heartless.”

A large, meaty hand grabbed her and Brainy and yanked them behind the Nerd Herd desk.

Hank shoved them into their chairs. “I’ve had just about enough of you two morons. You knocked over a customer, you wrecked a display case, and you’re fooling around and horseplaying on the job. Together, you constitute a clear and present danger to the store which needs to be neutralised.”

Nia sighed, setting down her laser gun. “You know, Hank? I know you like to play make believe that you’re some kind of military tough guy, but the truth is, you’re just a schmuck who works in a computer store with us.”

Hank crossed his arms over his chest and suppressed the urge to wring her neck right there. 

“I guess you didn’t hear that Winn’s down in L.A. at a management seminar and left me in charge as Assistant Manager?”

Nia rolled her eyes. “What a special moment for you. I assume then, that you’ve been made aware of the ‘No Touching’ policy here at the store? Granted, it’s mostly for me and Brainy, but it holds company-wide, my friend.”

She took a step closer and poked her finger into Hank’s bulky chest. “Don’t ya see, Hanky? You can’t harm us thanks to the rules of the very corporate structure that you so admire.” She booped his nose and laughed. “Ha! The irony.”

Hank laughed facetiously as his blood boiled over. “I do love irony,” he said, grabbing the backs of their heads and bringing them together, smacking their heads into each other, before walking away.

“Dude!” Kara shouted, as she watched the assault take place. “Hank! What did you just do?!”

Hank turned to her with a curious, unfazed look. “What are you still doing here? I thought you clocked out.”

“I did, but I thought I’d take a second to see how you’re adjusting to civilian life. Apparently not that great!”

Hank shrugged. “Baby steps.”

“More like baby kicks to the groin,” she replied incredulously. “We’ve gotta get you reinstated, man. Without a license to kill, you are a menace to society!”

Hank rolled his eyes but said nothing, picking up Nia’s discarded laser pistol. 

“Listen,” Kara said, dropping her voice lower, “I’m gonna talk to Haley, and I’m gonna tell her that if she doesn’t give you your job back, I’m quitting!”

Hank frowned at her. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“That’s not ridiculous,” she replied defiantly, puffing out her chest. “I’m gonna ask Lena to do the same! ...That is, if she ever calls me back.” 

She grimaced. “You know she went to D.C. with William? Talk about a weekend in Snoresville.”

Hank grabbed her arm. “Listen to me Kara. I disobeyed orders. I put my team and my country in danger. This is my job now. I made my bunk and I’ll lie in it. Unlike you, I know when something’s over.”

Kara ignored the jab and returned to the matter at hand. “Look, you were put in an impossible position, okay? You had no choice!”

Hank twitched his head and smiled. “This is America, Kara. Everyone has a choice.”

***

The door to The Tower whooshed open as Kara entered and made her way down the stairs. Lena stood at the computer typing something, and Kara took just a moment to appreciate the way her pencil skirt hugged her hips and thighs, how her long pale legs stretched down below the hem, ending at stiletto-clad feet. She looked like she had just gotten out of an important meeting, yet even in slightly wrinkled business attire, she looked like a million bucks.

Kara wanted to run her fingers through the long, silky black hair that fell straight down her back over her white silk blouse. She shook her head to clear it after she realised she’d been staring too long. Lena was with William now. She couldn’t be having these kinds of thoughts about the agent anymore.

Clearing her throat, she walked up behind her. “Lena?”

“Hey,” she offered with a smile, barely sparing her a glance as she went back to her typing.

“How--how was D.C.? I’m assuming you guys had a lot of fun. Although I can’t really picture what William does for fun? Maybe calisthenics? Or is he a secret knitter?” She rambled out nervously.

Lena turned quickly and moved over to the desk, looking through files for something. “Uh yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t call you back, but it was a work trip and we were in a lot of meetings...talking about you, actually. About your future.”

Kara cocked her head and frowned. “My future? No! It’s Hank’s future that we need to be concerned with! We’ve gotta get him reinstated!”

Lena gave her a small, sympathetic smile. “I know, Kara, and I would like nothing more than to get him reinstated, but--”

“Hank’s status is none of your concern,” William finished, entering the command center, duffle bag over his shoulder. “Besides, there’s business to attend to, however, which very much concerns you.”

He handed Lena the duffle bag and smiled. “You left your bag in the car on the way back from the airport.”

“Oh, thanks,” Lena replied quickly, taking it from him, pointedly not looking at Kara.

“So thoughtful,” Kara muttered under her breath. God, she hated him.

The monitor blinked on and General Haley appeared. Kara turned to the screen, happy for the distraction from whatever was happening between William and Lena.

“Good morning, team. Have you told her anything yet?”

Kara frowned. “Told me what?”

“After much deliberation, it has been decided that you are ready for a mission that will test everything that you have learned thus far. A final spy exam, if you will,” Haley replied.

Kara’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “A spy exam?!” She asked excitedly, before getting her excitement under control. Clearing her throat she added, “Yeah, no I’m great with a number two pencil and a scantron.”

“Kara, if you fail to complete the mission, which you’ll undertake by yourself, then you’ll go back to your old life,” Lena informed her seriously.

Oh. So it was like...a really big deal. Suddenly she was not so confident.

“But if you succeed,” Haley continued, “you’ll be promoted. No more Nerd Herd, no more handlers. Just real missions for a real spy. You will be based out of Rome, your cover will be that of a millionaire industrialist.”

Kara’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened the longer Haley went on. “S-Seriously?”

She took a deep breath and tried to quell her excitement, but it still came bursting out of her. “Molto bene! I love it! This is fantastic!” She turned to Lena. “We’re gonna have to brush up on our Italiano, you know what I mean?”

“No Kara,” Haley replied, “Just you. Agents Luthor and Dey will be based in D.C. and will continue to head counter-Leviathan operations there. You will deploy before them.”

But Kara heard very little beyond D.C. 

So, if she passed this test, she would be a real spy and live the life of adventure and service that she always wanted, but she would lose Lena, and if she failed the test, she would lose the life she wanted _and_ lose Lena. Either way, after this mission, she would likely never see Lena again. Her good mood was immediately hampered by the thought.

“D.C.?” She replied quietly. “Not--not Rome?”

“You will get your mission specifics tomorrow,” Haley continued, ignoring her. “Your spy test will start then. Good luck.”

The monitor blinked off.

“You can do this, Kara,” William encouraged from behind her. “You can pass this test. It’s everything you’ve been working toward.”

Kara stood silently in the middle of the command center, lost in thought. William left the room and Lena began gathering her bag and files. 

“Me...a real spy,” she muttered incredulously. “In Rome, no less.”

Lena gave her a smile that was too bright to be genuine, and Kara nearly winced at the sight of it.

“Congratulations, Kara. It looks like you’re finally gonna get everything you’ve always wanted.”

As she swept from the room, Kara felt like a knife was being plunged into her heart.

“Not everything,” she murmured.

***

Kara woke the next morning before her alarm, her nervous anticipation about her final exam pulling her out of sleep. All through her morning routine, she wondered what exactly she would be tested on, what skills would be required. 

She moved through her morning shower, brushing her teeth and getting dressed in a sort of daze. This was undoubtedly the biggest day of her life and she had no idea what was coming, but she was sure of what she needed: Coffee.

Loping out into the kitchen and grabbing the mercifully full coffeepot, she turned to grab a mug and nearly dropped the pot when a beautiful raven-haired figure in a tight black pencil skirt and green silk blouse that brought out the hue of her eyes popped up in her peripheral view with a, “Good morning, Kara.”

Hot coffee splashed back onto her hand as she jumped, and she yelped in pain, dropping the mug with a crash. “Good God! Wh--Hi! How long have you been here?” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she replaced the coffeepot and walked out into the living room to meet her. “Or are you even really here? I--I could be asleep right now...I very well could be asleep right now. I have some of the most vivid dreams sometimes--”

“Kara,” she interrupted, “You’re awake. Please sit down, your mission has started.”

Without further ado, Lena moved over to the dining room and pulled out a chair, gracefully sitting in it and pulling out a notebook and a padded envelope. Kara slumped to the table behind her and fell into the chair across from her, definitely feeling the effects of the lack of coffee in her bloodstream.

“This is how a real agent receives missions in the field,” Lena informed her, sliding the padded envelope across the table to her. 

“What, you surprising them in their kitchen? That must involve a lot of travel,” she joked.

“Focus, Kara,” Lena reprimanded. “From here on out, my role is to observe and report. More of like a proctor than a partner.” As if to drive her point home, she clicked her pen and opened up her notepad.

Kara nodded, pulling the envelope to her and opening it. Inside was a small electronic box and she stared down at it in confusion. “What’s this thing?”

But the next second, the box had split in half, with the top half flipping up to reveal a screen, similar to a portable DVD player. She jumped at the sudden movement, gasping in surprise.

Lena began taking extensive notes and Kara couldn’t help but be confused. Nothing had happened yet. What could she possibly be writing?

“What--what are you doing? Are you writing something about me? Are you grading me?”

“Think of it more like...recording the experience for history,” she replied with a grim smile.

“Right,” Kara replied as the screen blinked to life. A small video of General Haley began to play.

_“Good morning, Kara. Your mission centers around this man, Leonard Snart.”_ A picture of Snart appeared on the screen. He was a younger man, maybe mid-30s, with closely cropped hair and steely grey eyes. _“A Canadian Secret Service agent. He’s in National City to meet with a man who we believe works for us.”_

Kara leaned down and spoke above normal volume at the screen, “Who--who ‘us’, General?”

“It’s a recording, Kara.” Lena informed her quietly. Kara looked up at her as she felt her cheeks turn bright red. Fucking moron.

_“A mole within the CIA,”_ Haley’s recording continued, _“who has been selling secrets to Snart who then sells them to Leviathan. This mole is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians and nine of our agents. We have intel that Snart is meeting with him or her at the Grant Hotel & Spa tonight. Your mission is to ascertain the identity of the mole. You will stake out the hotel’s entrance and let Snart lead you to the mole.” _

The screen blinked off in the same quick way that Haley’s live video calls usually ended.

“Wait! That’s all I need to know? How can that be all I need to know?” She picked up the device and turned it over a few times. “Is there a rewind on this thing? What’s the deal?”

She set it back on the table and not a second later, it sparked and let out a small **boom** , plumes of burnt plastic smelling smoke rising from its innards. 

“Whoa!” She slid back in her seat and waved the smoke away. “Wow! That thing just really self-destructed, didn’t it! That’s like in the movies! That’s so cool! Well, I got it anyways. Take out Snart and find the mole. Done and done.” 

She smiled up at Lena, who’s face remained impassive as she turned back to her notebook and continued writing.

Kara’s smile dropped. “Still with the writing? What is this? Like, the CIA’s permanent record? This is like junior high!”

Lena smiled and huffed out a soft laugh. “Pretty much.”

“Really?” Now she was curious. “So--so you’re saying that’s got all of the greatest hits in it, huh? All the daring escapes, last second bomb defusions, and--and I would _hope_ all of the world class stake out mixes.” 

She put her left hand up to her ear and used her right to imitate scratching a record, making the same imitation with her mouth.

Lena smiled, this time a genuine bright one and laughed softly, looking up into blue eyes. “Yeah, everything is in here. We’ve definitely been through a lot.”

Kara looked back at her blue-green gaze and smiled softly, thinking of all the things they had done. The daring rescues, the near death experiences, the first kiss in front of James’ odd tank device, that morning in the hotel when they were on the run…

As if sensing her thoughts, or perhaps because she was thinking the same thing, Lena quickly pressed on, dropping her gaze and rising from the table. “I mean, not just us, Hank too.”

Kara tried not to be disappointed in the deflection. She rose from the table and followed Lena to the door. “Right, yeah, Hank too, hey speaking of stakeouts, you’re going to be at the one tonight, right?”

Lena took a deep breath. “Right. William will quarterback from The Tower.”

“Right.” _William, ugh._ “So, this is like our last mission together,” she replied sadly. “Seems like we should do something special.”

Lena’s face remained impassive. “Something special will be you completing your mission and becoming a spy, Kara."

“Of course! No -- yeah, of course.” Kara took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to word what she wanted to impart to Lena. “I’m just saying, _last mission_...it kinda makes you think. About old times, good times….dangerous times! But, still good times.”

“Yeah it does,” Lena replied with a small smile. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“See you,” Kara replied, as Lena pulled the door closed behind her without another backwards glance. 

Well, whether Lena felt it was worth celebrating or not, she was going to do something special for their final mission together. Something to commemorate their time together...something that Lena would not quickly forget.

***

Kara lugged her cases of surveillance equipment into the elevator of the building across from the Grant Hotel. The building was undergoing construction on the 15th floor, which is where Kara chose to have her stake out. It would give her the perfect vantage point to watch the entrance for Snart, and since it was after hours, no one would be bothering her.

The elevator dinged and she stepped out, setting down her cases on a workbench and smoothing her suit as she pulled off her laptop bag. She went to work setting up her equipment. Earpieces ready, camera in place, scopes for sniper vision, even a bluetooth speaker connected to her phone for some tunes while she waited and watched.

She flipped open her laptop and linked it to The Tower’s interface and was just setting up her perch when a soft voice found her ears.

“Hey Kara.” 

Kara turned and took in Lena, hair down in an inky waterfall over her black sweater and jeans. She had on a pair of high heeled boots and the sleeves of her sweater were pulled down low over her fingers as she nervously clutched her purse. She looked so soft and gorgeous. Kara wanted to pull her in and melt into her warmth.

“Everything looks great,” Lena continued, looking around at her setup. “You haven’t missed a trick.”

Kara smiled. This was the moment she was prepared for. “Oh thanks. There is one more thing though.”

She unsnapped the fasteners of the other case and lifted the lid. In the custom climate controlled case were custom foam inserts holding a spot in the cold section for a bottle of champagne, two flutes, and two small salads. In the heated section were two orders of potstickers and sizzling shrimp -- the meal they had eaten on the very first stakeout Lena had ever taken her on.

In the lid of the case were two electric candles, some chopsticks, and silverware rolled into linen napkins. 

“Ta-da!” She said with a wide grin, pulling the bottle of champagne out of the case. “No one throws a stakeout like Kara Danvers.” She popped the cork and gave Lena a smirk. “You can put that in my secret file.”

Lena stood next to her in soft shock. Kara relished the way her lips pulled to the side in a cute little half-smile. She pulled a flute out of the case and poured her a glass. “A little bubbly for you?”

Lena took the glass gingerly, still smiling that cute half-smile, but said nothing. 

Kara cleared her throat, trying not to get lost in her hypnotic gaze. “So! Do the words sizzling shrimp and potstickers ring a bell?”

“From our very first stakeout,” Lena replied softly, nodding her head. “How could I forget?”

Kara grinned. This was going so well. Maybe things could be patched up between the two of them. If she had to leave Lena, she’d like to do it on good terms, not with this rift between them. _Leaving Lena…_ she didn’t want to think about that. Not tonight.

She pulled out the boxes of chinese food and chopsticks and led Lena over to their perch, binoculars all set up and ready for action. As they sat down, Kara pulled out her phone and turned on ‘Private Eyes’ by Hall & Oates and set the volume to a moderate level.

Lena giggled at the unspoken pun. “Also from our first stakeout.”

“And yet, timeless,” she replied with a grin, digging into her food. They ate in silence for a few moments before Kara was itching to spark the conversation again. “You’re gonna miss me in D.C., you know that, right?” She said it lightheartedly, giving Lena a way out if she didn’t want to be serious about it, but Lena just sat quietly for a moment before softly replying, “I know.”

Kara slowed her chewing. Was that an invitation for more talking? Was she open to discussing this?

“So, um, so you and William...you’re gonna be...living together, or…? Like, are you guys like real serious or…?”

Lena frowned. “I don’t know. We’ll have to see what the agency wants us to do -- what our cover will be. Everything will be different.”

Kara furrowed her brow. Either Lena hadn’t understood her question, or she was purposefully dodging it. She decided to move on. “Different how?”

“Than with you,” was all Lena said in return.

An agonised frustration deep in Kara’s chest began to make itself known, and she decided to just come out and ask what she wanted to ask. To find out what she wanted to know.

“Lena, I --”

A shrill ringing broke in between her words and she quickly paused the music, and answered the call. It was William calling from The Tower.

“Yeah, what’s up William?” She tried to keep her frustration out of her voice. How many times would this man cockblock her conversations with Lena?

“Is there a problem?”

“No, uh, no problem here. Why would there be a problem? Can I talk to you after the mission?”

“You should have your earpiece in already,” he reprimanded sharply. “Is Lena there?”

Kara glanced over to the raven-haired agent who was twisting her fingers anxiously, eyes focused somewhere in the distance, clearly thinking of something else. “Yeah, yeah Lena just got here. She just walked in, what a coincidence. Hey Lena, how are ya? Thanks for the reminder about the earpieces, William.”

“Snart and the mole could arrive at any minute, Kara. Stay on the ball. It’s all you out there.”

Kara rolled her eyes at the sports metaphor. As if this Brit knew anything about American sports terminology. _I hate him. I hate him. I hate him,_ she chanted to herself.

“Yep, good talking to ya. Thanks!” She hung up. Stakeout fun time was over. It was time to go to work.

Grabbing the earpieces, she handed one to Lena and put her own in, handing her a pair of binoculars, and raising her own to watch the entrance of the hotel. 

After a few minutes of silent spying, she lowered the lenses and glanced over at Lena, who kept hers pressed against her face.

“Um, Lena?” She cleared her throat. “What I was--what I was gonna ask you a minute ago -- or...or what I was about to say anyway was that, um, I’ve been thinking about what it used to be like between us. Before Prague.”

She raised the binoculars again to distract herself from the way her hands shook and her heart raced.

“And uh, what life would be like for us if we’d made different decisions back then,” she continued quietly, staring intently at the hotel entrance until her eyes burned. But whether it was from staring or the tears pricking the corners of her vision, she couldn’t be sure. 

“If--if _I_ had made a different decision back then.” She lowered the lenses again and turned to face Lena, who was still holding hers to her face, and Kara noticed the white on her knuckles with how tightly she gripped them.

“Look, I know we couldn’t be together before because I wasn’t a real spy, but if I pass this test then we wouldn’t have to choose between the job and us. If I pass this test...we could be together.”

Lena said nothing, just kept the lenses pressed into her eyes, and Kara felt her heart beat an anxious rhythm against her ribcage as she laid it out in front of Lena, asking her to take it.

“That is...if you’re willing to give it another shot,” she finished softly.

Kara watched breathlessly as Lena slowly lowered the binoculars and turned to face her, watched the way her breaths came a little quicker than normal. Lena said nothing, but gazed into her eyes, her answer as clear as day.

_Don’t hurt me again._

She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Her eyes flicked down to Lena’s lips, soft and supple, and she watched Lena’s blue-green gaze do the same. Like the way two magnets are destined to pull toward each other instinctively, she found herself leaning in, caught in Lena’s gravity, and to her happy surprise, she found Lena leaning in too.

A breath away from the lips she had been dying to kiss, Kara was pulled back by the crackle of her earpiece.

_“Did you see him?! Did you flash?!”_ William’s voice filtered in through the haze of the moment and Kara felt a metric ton of hatred and frustration consume her over the Brit’s seemingly psychic powers of clamjamming her.

“Uh no, no I didn’t, should I have?” She asked as she tried to clear the almost-kiss out of her head.

_“Snart is inside the hotel! He just swiped his credit card at the spa. How did you miss him?”_

Shit. She had been so focused on fixing things with Lena that she was well on her way to botching her spy exam! 

“Uh...I don’t--I don’t know. I’m going after him!” 

She tossed her binoculars down and jumped out of her chair.

_“What?! Okay just -- Lena, give her the glasses.”_

“Wait,” Lena called after her, grabbing something out of her purse. “Here, put these on.” She handed Kara a pair of glasses similar to her own. Kara put them on and found they even had her proper prescription. “They’ll record everything and relay it back to The Tower.”

_“Okay, Lena, get back to The Tower. Kara, you’re on your own. Now get in there before the mission and your spy career are over.”_

Lena gazed up into her eyes, filled with all of the words that were still unspoken between them. Kara had to go. They couldn’t do this right now. She took a step toward the agent and lowered her voice so that William would not hear. 

“This,” she gestured between the two of them, “isn’t over.” 

Giving Lena one last searching look, she turned and rushed to the elevator, dashing out across the street to the hotel. As she stepped through the door, she made her way to the front desk.

A skinny, clearly very gay, man was working the desk, so there would be no charming or flirting her way through finding Snart. 

“Hello ma’am, may I help you?” The desk clerk asked politely. “Do you have an appointment for a treatment?”

“Uh...no,” she replied, trying to be casual. “No, not an appointment, per se. I--I made plans with a friend of mine -- a Canadian fellow -- to meet here. We really enjoy...spa-ing...together, so…”

The clerk smiled. “Oh yes, I believe he and his party have already checked in. Would you like to join them? The day use fee is $250, not including treatments.”

Kara blanched and laughed nervously as she tried to quickly go through her finances and make sure she could afford that. How stupid would it be if she failed her mission because she couldn’t afford a spa treatment. She made a note to talk to Haley or William about some form of payment for services rendered.

“$250? Wow. Okay, uh…” She turned her head and spoke into her watch, “I can expense this, right?!”

_“Pay it, Kara!”_ William’s voice came through her earpiece in a frustrated tone. 

She rolled her eyes. Easy for him to say. The United States government was paying _him._ He didn’t work at a fucking computer store.

Reluctantly, she pulled her wallet out of her back pocket, the little dancing posticker emblazoned on the teal blue pleather doing her no favours in looking professional. “Just gotta break out the ol’ plastic,” she said with a goofy smile. 

The clerk took her card and swiped it, and her stomach dropped with the motion. William had better be paying her back.

The clerk directed her through the door down the hall to the locker rooms and Kara poked her head into the men’s room to see if Snart was there. He wasn’t. 

“Just checked the men’s locker room,” she said into her watch, “There’s no one here.”

_“Check the steam room,”_ William instructed.

Kara winced. “What? Uh... _inside_ the steam room?? Is that really...hygienic?”

_“You can tell me when you come out.”_

***

A few minutes later and Kara was walking into the steam room in nothing but a long white towel, feeling more uncomfortable than she ever had in her life.

She pushed the glass door open and immediately her glasses fogged up. Even if they hadn’t, the fog was so thick, she couldn’t have seen anything. Bringing her hand up to scratch her neck so she could nonchalantly speak into her watch, she said, “Wow...sure is steamy in here.”

_“Sit tight,”_ William instructed, _“the steam will clear up in a moment.”_

Kara sat down on a bench along the wall and wiped the glasses on the edge of her towel, waiting for the room to defog.

As much as she hated to admit it, William was right and a few moments later the steam began to clear, revealing Snart and two muscular men sitting on the bench opposite her.

“Oh hi there,” she greeted dumbly. “Looks like I’m not alone after all. Just...three other people in here with me. Fun.”

***

Lena flew down the steps into The Tower, anxious for an update on Kara’s progress. As soon as she stepped into the command center, William turned to her, suspicion etched into his features.

“What the hell happened back there?” He demanded, arms crossed over his chest.

“It wasn’t her fault,” she replied, grabbing a headset. “You’ve been in the field. Sometimes operations don’t go as planned.”

He continued to glare at her but said nothing. Kara began speaking on the monitor in front of them and revealed Snart and his men were in the room with her.

“It’s just Snart and his muscle,” William informed her. “He must not have made contact with the mole yet. Stay with him.”

***

Kara sat back against the wall as she waited for the mole to appear. The warm, wet tile was almost soothing to her skin as she sat back and thought about the events of the night. 

Lena had almost kissed her. That had to be a good sign, right? That she wanted to try again too? Kara had seen it in her eyes. This wasn’t over for either of them, no matter how cold Lena had been. There was still hope.

The door to the sauna pushed open and Kara sat up in anticipation, but it was just the desk clerk.

“Mr. Taincold? Cap Taincold?” The desk clerk called out into the room. “I have a message for Mr. Cap Taincold.”

“Yes, here.” Snart raised his hand and the desk clerk rushed over to him to hand him the note.

“Captain Cold? Seriously?” Kara muttered to herself.

The desk clerk left and Kara watched as Snart read the note and crumpled it in his hand.

“They’re paranoid,” Snart muttered to his men. “Believes we’re being followed. They want to meet upstairs in the room. Let’s go.”

He tossed the note onto the floor and the three of them walked out of the sauna. Kara tucked her towel more tightly around her and dashed over to pick up the note.

Just as she stood up and began to uncrumple it, the door opened and one of Snart’s men stepped back into the room.

“Hey miss, why so quick to pick up trash off the floor?”

Kara froze and the other bodyguard stepped into the room with his partner. 

“Uh...just--just doing my part for mother nature. You know, keeping it green...”

The man who had spoken assumed a defensive stance, raising his fists, and immediately the Intersect saw the threat and began to flash.

The first man approached from her left, throwing out a punch which she dodged, grabbing his arm and lifting him up by the throat, body slamming him into the warm sauna tiles.

The second rushed her, grabbing her neck and pulling her head forward. She gripped his shoulders and kneed him between the legs, throwing his hands off of her neck, and grabbed his lower body, flinging him over her shoulders and sending him crashing through the sauna bench.

Both men lay writhing on the ground as Kara tightened her towel, which had not fallen during her struggle, she noted with pride.

_“Kara, you have to get to the mole before he leaves. Get moving!”_

Kara dashed out into the lobby of the spa, note still in hand, and began to uncrumple it.

“Lockers are to your left, ma’am,” the desk clerk reminded her, but she waved him off.

She wiped her steamy glasses on the towel again and looked down at the smeared ink on the condensation covered note.

**Yo- are being foll--ed. Me-t me i- room 7--**

The letters were smeared in some places, but the note was mostly legible. However, the most important part -- the room number -- was all but rubbed off the page. It was a room on the seventh floor, but that could be dozens of rooms!

At that moment, Snart stepped out of the locker room and walked out of the spa, heading to the elevators. Kara ran to the stairs and sprinted up to the seventh floor, still in her towel and bare feet. She thanked whatever deity for her commitment to fitness as her breaths came shorter and shorter as she approached the seventh floor landing.

The elevator must have been slow, or she must have been running faster than she thought, because as she doubled over panting next to the staircase door, the elevator dinged and Leonard Snart stepped out, heading down the hallway opposite her. 

She took in a deep breath and crept down the hallway after him, keeping a safe distance until she could see what room he entered.

“Snart is on the seventh floor. He’s here meeting the mole,” she said into her watch.

_“Nice work, Kara. Your priority is ID’ing the mole. But do not blow your cover. He can’t know we’re onto him.”_

“Got it.”

As she peered around the corner to see which room Snart was stopping at, she saw that the room next to it was being serviced by housekeeping, and an idea sparked in Kara’s mind.

She peeked into the room, saw the maid changing the bedsheets, and slipped quietly into the bathroom, closing the door silently. A second later she opened it and stepped out in her sauna towel, with a satisfied sigh.

The maid gasped and apologised quickly, dashing toward the door.

“My fault! Forgot to put the ‘Do not disturb’ sign up!” Kara called after her with a smile.

She opened the door to the balcony and stepped out, trying to peek around the divider and into the mole’s room. The divider was too thick.

Taking a deep breath, she climbed up onto the stone balcony ledge, gripping the concrete above her to steady herself as she pulled her body up into a standing position.

A horn honked below and Kara saw just how high off the ground she was and immediately began to experience some vertigo. She gasped and gripped the stone in a white-knuckled grasp as she breathed in and out, trying to calm herself.

_“Come on, Kara. You’ve got this,”_ came Lena’s voice through her earpiece, and suddenly it was like all the rest of the chaos was filtered out. She could do this. This was easy. All she had to do was look around the divider and get a glimpse of the mole on her spy glasses, and she would be done. She would be a real spy. 

She took a deep breath and steadied herself on the ledge, reaching out and grabbing the other side of the divider. The divider between the balconies was nearly as thick as the entire wingspan of her arms, and she had to straddle both balconies in order to see around it.

She ignored the stone biting into her bare feet and the way her arms trembled with fear and exertion, and stuck her head around the edge of the divider, trying not to be seen. 

_This would have been easier in underwear,_ she thought to herself.

“Well done, you’re about to become a very rich woman,” she heard Snart saying to the mole. “We should begin to process our retrieval.”

So the mole was a woman. Interesting.

“Change of plans, Snart,” came a woman’s voice. “I’m dealing directly with Leviathan now. Your services are no longer needed.”

Snart came backing into Kara’s field of vision, followed by an attractive brunette who whipped out a large knife and shoved it into Snart’s stomach, pulling up on it. Kara still hadn’t seen her face though, which meant no ID.

She turned her head to face toward her wrist.

“The mole just killed Leonard!”

_“Forget Snart. The mole is leaving. You’ve got to get a look at their face,”_ William replied sternly.

Kara slowly peered back around the divider and watched as the woman began to head for the door. 

No! She couldn’t leave. Kara still needed to ID her! She had to make her stay somehow. She had to get her attention.

Kara winced at her own stupidity, then let out a, “Ca-caw! Ca-caw!” before pressing back away from the window. 

But it worked. The mole turned around and walked to the window, peering out into the night in confusion. Kara pushed her head just far enough around the corner to capture her face with the glasses.

_“We’ve got it, Kara! Congratulations!”_

Kara laughed in relief and pushed away from the mole’s balcony and back to her own.

She had done it. She had passed her spy test. She was now a real spy. And she had done it all barefoot and in a towel. That needed to be noted for the permanent record.

***

Kara pulled open the door to the Wienerlicious with a spring in her step. She was officially a real spy, she was going to be moving to Rome to live in a sprawling mansion, she was going to be really helping people -- doing work that mattered, and most of all -- she had a shot at getting Lena back, which is what had brought her to the restaurant this morning.

She strode up behind Lena, who was wiping down the counter. 

“Hey there, colleague...peer...fellow coworker,” she greeted with a glee-filled laugh. “Uh hey so tell me, when should I expect to receive my International Spy Union card, hm?”

She preened with pride at the amused smile that spread over Lena’s face. Lena hadn’t smiled at her in so long, this felt like passing her spy exam all over again.

“You did a great job last night, Kara. Congratulations,” Lena replied, walking around the counter.

“Thank you. I appreciate that.” Kara beamed with pride. “Uh so…tell me -- and, you know, this is just between the two of us, just for the sake of conversation -- but as far as these tests go, do other people usually do as well as I did, or did I do, like, _historically_ well?”

Lena dropped the rag into the sanitiser bucket and put a hand on her hip, giving her an amused but exasperated smile. There was a moment of comfortable silence between them and then Lena spoke again.

“Um, listen Kara. I was hoping that maybe you would be free for dinner tonight?”

The small bit of hope that had been daring to take root inside her chest burst into full bloom at those words. Trying to contain her rabid enthusiasm, she replied, “Yeah...yeah definitely. In fact, I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Okay, how about Trax? It’s a restaurant down at the National City Train Station.”

Kara fidgeted with her glasses in confusion. A restaurant inside the train station? Not exactly the romantic ambience she was going for, but she was flexible! She could roll with this!

“Uh, yeah. Sounds great. Nothing wets the whistle like the sound of a nice long horn.” She laughed lightly. Lena just raised an eyebrow at her.

Kara stifled her laughter. “Sorry, that was dumb, I’m just very excited.”

“Well, don’t be too excited--”

“Let me finish,” Kara interrupted, “By excited I mean cold as ice, because you know, now I am a real spy.”

She walked toward the door with a giant smile on her face, making a loud train horn sound as she left the restaurant. Lena gazed after her with a soft smile.

***

Kara walked into the Nerd Herd to find Hank grinning at some dumb thing Nia and Brainy had just done and drew her eyebrows together in confusion. The Nerd Herd was infecting Hank. They had to get him his job back.

Pulling him aside, she asked: “What is going on? You’re laughing with Brainy and Nia instead of conking their heads together?”

Hank just shrugged. “I guess I’m a changed man. Civilian life has relaxed me.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Well that makes two of us that are changed. Buddy, I just passed my first solo spy test last night. This is it! I’m going to the show! I really wanted to tell you beforehand, and I’m sorry I didn’t, but -- you know -- Top Secret, you understand.”

Hank narrowed his eyes and was silent for a moment, his face screwed up in thought. “You took your test last night? And you passed?”

“Oh yeah!” Kara replied with a bright smile, “With flying colours, man! And I think we both know that I have you to thank for that.”

She pulled a package from behind her back that she had been hiding. “So, I wanted to give you a little something.”

Hank took the box from her with a suspicious smile. Opening the lid, he looked inside and found a Sig Sauer P228 sitting inside. His eyes went wide and he quickly slammed the lid back down on the box.

Kara grinned widely. “I don’t think they’re gonna miss it down in The Tower, do you?”

“You know that giving away a government-issued firearm is a felony, don’t you?” Hank replied quietly. Kara just smiled in return. Hank gripped the box tightly and rolled his eyes. “But it was a thoughtful felony.”

Kara laughed quietly. “Honestly, everything is coming up roses right now. I mean, I passed my test, you are joining the world of human beings so -- proud of you -- kudos for that, and Lena has invited me to dinner tonight. Alone. At NC Station. So…”

Hank cocked his head and furrowed his brow. “Are you sure you’ve completed your test?”

“Yeah! Like I said, I passed. Celebration time now!”

Hank nodded solemnly, eyes still narrowed. “Okay. Well...just be careful out there. Ready for anything.”

Kara smiled. “I will. A good spy always is, right?”

She clapped him on the shoulder and walked into the breakroom. She deserved some vending machine garbage food in celebration!

***

“You told her to meet you tonight?” William asked from across the desk.

“I did,” Lena replied, leaning back in her chair. “So, what’s the rest of her mission?”

“With Snart dead, there’s only one piece left to be cleaned up: the mole. We’ve identified her as Caitlin Snow, a CIA agent. We’ve arranged for her to meet Kara at the restaurant.”

“And then Kara has to bring her in?” Lena asked. This seemed standard enough. Kara might be disappointed that the test wasn’t over, but Lena had no doubt that she could handle this.

“No,” William replied quietly, and Lena froze. “Kara has to kill her.”

Her blood turned to ice in her veins. Her heart stopped beating in her chest for a moment, and her stomach sunk somewhere below where it should be. 

“What?” She whispered in disbelief. “Kara has to _kill_ her? You’re giving her her Red Test tonight?”

William nodded. “That’s right.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lena asked, her tone grave.

“Because you would have said you couldn’t be a part of it,” William replied immediately, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I _can’t_ ,” she retorted quietly. “I can’t be a part of it. And I won’t. You have to meet her. I can’t make her do something like that. I’m not even sure that I want her to be _able_ to do something like that.”

William sighed, leaning forward, squaring his shoulders. “I’m sorry Lena, but this isn’t about what you want. This is about Kara. And us finding out what she’s capable of.”

Lena scoffed in disgust. “Snow is a seasoned agent, and she’s going to do anything she can to save herself, and if Kara freezes then -- then --” She trailed off, unable to finish her thought. She inhaled deeply, then forced it out in a whisper. “We could lose her.”

“And that’s why you’ll be there,” William replied, clearly not worried about Kara in the same way Lena was. “If you give her the order -- if _you_ tell her to kill Snow -- then she’ll do it.”

And with that, he got up and left, leaving Lena to stew in her own conflicting feelings.

She could not tell Kara to kill someone. She couldn’t do that. Kara was too good and too pure for this life, and she had always known that. If she killed the mole, she would lose that bit of herself that Lena had always loved about her -- that drive to do good, to do the right thing, to hold life sacred, even when Lena herself could not do the same. 

But she couldn’t stand in the way of her career either. If this life is what Kara wanted…she couldn’t stand in the way of that. But she couldn’t watch her become someone unrecognisable. The fact that she was being made to give this order and watch it play out felt like its own custom brand of torture, just for her.

She would leave the choice up to Kara, and hope that the aspiring agent would make the right one.

***

Kara paused outside of Trax and smoothed out the lines of her fitted grey suit. She’d been collecting all the suits that she had worn on missions and couldn’t help but feel like a million bucks in them. (The CIA hadn’t asked for them back, so who was she to turn down a gift? She didn’t need to remind them.)

Inhaling deeply, she made her way to the hostess. Lena had put the reservation under “Dawson” for some reason, and it made her stand just a little bit taller to be here, in her handsome suit, giving her codename, and meeting the girl of her dreams for dinner in the hopes of a second chance.

The hostess showed her to the table where Lena already sat, wearing a black dress cinched at the waist with a belt, her long raven hair flowing down over her shoulders like rivers of ink. Even her eye makeup was black, forcing you to sit up and take notice of the different hues in her irises. In short, she looked stunning, though Kara had never seen her wear so much black before. It certainly agreed with her.

“Hey, wow you look great,” she stammered out, trying to calm her nerves. “Better than great.”

“Thank you,” she said with a smile, “you look great too.”

Kara preened at the words, tugging on the lapels of her suit jacket. “I feel pretty good.”

Lena smiled but remained silent, and Kara took the opportunity to say something that had been bothering her since last night.

“Right off the bat, I just wanted to apologise. I want to say I’m sorry if I came across a little too strong last night. It’s just that -- with the way things seemed to be progressing between you and William, I wanted to tell you how I felt and I just--”

“Kara,” Lena interrupted softly.

“I’m doing it again, aren’t I? I’m coming across too strong, I’m sorry about that. Um...appetizer? Should we get an appetizer? No! Wait, what am I doing? I gotta thank you! Thank you. I wouldn’t even be here right now if it wasn’t for you!”

Lena’s heart cracked at those words. “Please don’t say that.”

“But it’s true!” Kara replied, eyes bright and smile crooked as she gazed at Lena in awed admiration.

Lena could not find her words for a moment. The last thing she wanted to hear was that she was the reason Kara was here, about to be told that she needed to end someone’s life. The guilt was already weighing on her chest like an anvil. Every word of praise that the blonde lavished upon her made it harder and harder to breathe.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to speak. “Kara, you’re gonna want to stay calm right now, okay? I need you to trust me.”

Kara gave her a confused smile and laughed lightly. “Why? You planning on surprising me with something? Is that what this is?”

Lena shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Um. Something like that, yeah.”

She reached into her purse and removed a padded envelope, handing it over to the blonde.

“Your mission isn’t over, Kara.”

Kara took the envelope from her slowly, face contorted into a confused expression as she ripped open the envelope and removed a picture of the mole, Caitlin Snow.

“The woman in the photo is the mole you ID’d last night. She’s a traitor who continues to put civilians and agents and the nation at risk.” Lena took a deep breath and continued on, before she lost her courage. “We have arranged for you to meet her here at the restaurant in five minutes time. She knows you’re CIA, and she will remain cautious, and probably try to maintain her cover.”

Lena’s hand shook as she slid the heavy napkin next to her across the table. Kara slowly reached out and laid her hand on top of the napkin, feeling something solid underneath. Flipping back the fold, there lay a SIG Sauer P228, the same kind of gun she had given to Hank. Her heart began to pound in earnest as she looked back up to Lena in shock.

Lena’s voice shook as she finished her instructions, avoiding the blonde's wide, terrified eyes. 

“The final part of your mission is to kill her.”

Kara stared at her, eyes wide, her breath coming in anxious gasps. “Are you being serious right now? Are--Are you kidding me? _Kill her_? Here? Now? I can’t do that!”

“Then you won’t become a spy,” Lena replied simply.

“B--but then...we...we couldn’t…” Kara stammered out as the full implications of this washed over her. 

“No, probably not,” Lena replied quietly.

Kara looked around the restaurant, as if she would find the answer to this quandary in some corner with the highchairs. Looking back to Lena, her chest began to rise and fall faster.

“Lena, when all of this first started, I didn’t think I had a chance at ever becoming a real spy. But if I -- if I can’t do this...then--then what will I be?”

Lena leaned forward quickly and gave her a stern expression. “Then you’ll be _Kara_ , and there is _nothing_ wrong with that.”

Kara stared at her with a terrified expression, her eyes flicking back and forth between Lena’s.

Lena sighed. “That’s all I can say, I’m sorry. The rest is your decision.”

She stood up and grabbed her coat, pulling it on and buttoning it. Kara searched frantically for an answer before the agent left.

“Lena, wait. Are--are we absolutely sure she’s the guy?”

“Yes,” Lena replied, reaching for her purse. “Your target is Snow. Your orders are clear.”

Kara began to pant anxiously as Lena prepared to leave. “Lena I...I don’t know if I can do this.”

Lena swallowed hard before speaking, wishing she could tell Kara the right answer. “The decision is yours, Kara, but please know…there is no turning back.”

With one last look, she walked away, stopping only for a moment at the entrance to the restaurant. She gazed back at Kara over her shoulder for a moment, and then she was gone.

***

Kara sat, her shoulders rising and falling quickly, as she watched Lena disappear from view. How could this be happening? How could the rest of her life depend on this one moment? How could she _kill_ someone? And how did Lena feel about it? Did she want her to walk away? But then they couldn’t be together…

Her head spun and swam with panic and anxiety at the task laid before her. As she looked back toward the entrance of the restaurant, her blood ran cold as Caitlin Snow walked up to the hostess’ podium. This was it. There was no turning back. She needed to make a decision.

Grabbing the gun out of the napkin, she quickly shoved it into her waistband, fixing her jacket just as the hostess led Snow to her table.

“Dawson?” The woman asked as she sat down across from her.

Kara forced her breath to even out as she swallowed hard before answering. “Uh...yeah, yeah that’s me.”

At least now she knew why the reservation was in her codename. 

Snow shrugged off her coat and scooted closer to the table, looking completely at ease. “I hope this doesn’t take too long. I’ve got a date later,” she added with a smile.

“Uh, no, yeah that--that shouldn’t be a problem. This should be...fast.”

Kara felt bile starting to rise up in her throat at the thought of having to shoot the woman in front of her. Traitor or not, the thought of being the one to spread her brain matter all over the pavement made her nearly dizzy with nausea. 

She lifted the padded envelope Lena had given her and forced herself to continue. This was for her future, she reminded herself. This was for her career. This was for Lena, and the future they would have together. “These are some pictures of people that I work with. Just wanted to see if maybe you recognise any of them.”

She slid the envelope across the table to Snow, who smiled politely. “Sure, maybe I will. I pride myself on never forgetting a face. I do need to use the ladies’ room first, though. Is that okay? It was a long drive.”

“Oh yeah, s-sure,” Kara ascented. “Not a problem.”

As Snow walked toward the restroom, Kara realised this was it. This was her opportunity. She could shoot her in the restroom, walk out, and no one would be the wiser. Her breaths came quicker, her chest lifting and falling in anxious breaths. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, she rose from her seat and made her way toward the ladies room on unsteady legs.

Pushing open the door, she peered around the corner but saw no one. She began checking the stalls, one by one, pushing them open, gun drawn. As she bent down to check under the last stall, the door came flying open, colliding with her head as Snow burst out, a knife drawn.

Kara’s gun fell out of her hand and skittered away as Snow swung the blade, and Kara fell back against the wall as the agent swiped again, slashing her across her stomach. Kara kicked her in the chest, shoving her back into the stalls and surveyed the wound on her abdomen. It was shallow -- non-life threatening -- she would survive. (Even if it did hurt like a bitch.) 

Snow leapt forward to pounce again and Kara flashed, immediately downloading the skills necessary for hand to knife combat. Snow swiped at her and Kara caught her arm, driving a kick to her knee that sent her tumbling to the side. She aimed another kick for the knife in her hand, but the agent dodged it, using Kara’s forward momentum to shove her into one of the stalls, following her in, knife cutting and slashing at the blonde as she ducked and dodged.

The cramped quarters made that much more difficult and Kara’s claustrophobia threatened to make her panic as Snow shoved her way further into the tight space, but the urgency of the moment helped her shove the anxiety away.

Snow slashed at her again and Kara caught her wrist, pinning it to the wall of the stall. The agent drove her knee up into Kara’s wounded stomach over and over again, forcing them back out into the main lobby of the restroom, pushing the blonde back into the wall.

The brunette threw her arm forward, intending to drive the knife right between Kara’s eyes, but the blonde caught it in time with both hands, landing another kick to the rogue traitor’s knee. Snow fell down onto the wounded joints and Kara twisted the knife from her grip.

This was it. This was the moment. Snow was disarmed, she was on her knees, she was facing away from Kara so she wouldn’t even have to see her face as she killed her, and Kara had the knife in her hand. All she had to do was bury it into her body and then it would all be over. Kara flexed her fingers around the grip of the blade and looked down at the woman, who raised her hands in surrender.

_Not like this_ , Kara thought. A knife wound was much too slow. Kicking the agent in the back so she landed facedown on the cold tile, Kara tossed the knife away, retrieving her gun from under the sink where it had landed.

She pointed it at Snow and pulled her to her feet. “Get up. Get up!”

“Relax! Relax!” Snow urged, as she stood, hands raised. “Look, I had no choice, okay? No choice! These people, Leviathan? You have no idea.”

“Oh I have an idea,” Kara growled back, leveling the barrel of her gun with the woman’s heart. 

“Then you know these people weren’t going to put me in jail!” She cried, her tone pleading. “They were going to kill me!”

Kara swallowed and blinked quickly, a bead of sweat trailing its way down her temple as she adjusted her grip on the gun. 

A look of understanding came over Caitlin’s face as she took in Kara’s nervous appearance and audible silence. “You’re not here to arrest me either,” she said. It wasn’t a question. She knew the answer. She huffed out a defeated laugh. “I should’ve known. You might as well be one of _them_!”

Kara’s resolve cracked and a new one took its place. She was not Leviathan. She was not the same as these traitorous murderers. 

“I am _not_ one of them,” she growled. “I will _never_ be one of them, and for that very reason, I _am_ going to arrest you. In fact, as of this moment, consider yourself officially arrested, okay?! Okay? Now you and I...you and I are gonna take a nice, calm, friendly, leisurely walk out of this restroom. Now turn around! Turn around!” She shouted at the agent, urging her to comply faster.

Snow turned and Kara stuck her gun into her back, letting her walk in front of her as they walked out of the restaurant and into the crowded train station. Kara spotted Lena sitting in one of the chairs in the station as they made their way through the crowd.

“Hey, you mind easing up on that piece?” Snow asked, turning her head over her shoulder toward Kara. “My back is kinda screwy and it’s digging right in.”

Kara backed off a half step and Snow smiled, “Thanks.” She began walking faster through the terminal and Kara had to pick up the pace to keep up. “Slow it down, Snow,” she ordered, but Snow didn’t listen. If anything she picked up the pace. 

“Hey, slow down!”

Snow ignored her and then grabbed a random woman and shoved her back into Kara, taking off into a sprint toward the train tracks. Kara pushed the woman out of the way and took off after her, vaulting over benches and turnstiles to try and catch her.

She saw Snow leap over a chain with an Employees Only sign and run up some stairs, and she quickly followed, single-minded in her pursuit. At the top of the stairs, she saw a door falling closed and she burst through it and found herself in the train yard.

Giving chase, she sprinted across the gravel after Snow, leaping over car connectors and avoiding moving trains.

Kara sprinted around the back of the train car after the Leviathan agent and fired a warning shot up in the air, the bullet making a pinging sound as it ricocheted off the side of the caboose.

The agent stumbled but kept running, her feet crunching on the gravel between the trains. Kara put on a burst of speed and pursued her as she weaved in and out of the tracks.

The agent’s foot caught a railroad tie and she flew forward with a yelp, faceplanting in the gravel. She rolled over onto her back and sat up, looking up at Kara in fear as the blonde approached her, gun pointed at her chest.

“No no, don’t do it! Don’t shoot me...please! Don’t you see, this is exactly what they want!”

Kara took a step closer, trying to stop the tremble of her hands as she pointed the gun at the agent’s heart.

“I gave you a chance,” she replied, her voice shaking slightly.

“Please,” the woman pleaded, “Please, I had no choice.”

Kara stared down at the woman, finger on the trigger, gathering the courage to do what needed to be done.

But a conversation she had had just a few days prior flashed through her mind, and it made her finger move off the trigger infinitesimally. 

“There’s always a choice.”

Snow reached down to her thigh holster and whipped out a small gun.

**_BANG!_ **

Kara gasped as the agent fell back, dead. In confusion, she stared down at the gun in her hand. She hadn’t pulled the trigger, had she? She had taken her finger _off_ the trigger. So where had the shot come from? 

Turning around quickly, she looked back to the end of the train car and saw Hank Henshaw himself lowering his gun. He caught her eye, gave her a small nod, and then he was gone.

***

Lena watched in confusion as Kara led Snow out of the restaurant at gunpoint. What was she doing? Was she taking her somewhere else to kill her?

_“Lena, what’s happening?”_ William’s voice crackled in over her earpiece.

“I don’t know,” she muttered into her wrist. “Kara is leaving the restaurant with Snow at gunpoint. Maybe she’s taking her to a secondary location?”

_“Stay with her.”_

But Lena was already up and moving parallel to the pair. She saw Snow break out into a run with Kara hot on her heels and she sprinted after them, as fast as her stiletto-clad feet would carry her. 

Up the steps and out onto the platform, she saw Kara hightailing it through the trains and she followed in pursuit.

She lost sight of Kara and began ducking around the boxcars, searching for her. A shot rang out and her heart began to race. Was that shot meant for Kara? Was she okay? Did Kara kill Snow? It felt like all of her spy training had gone out the window the moment that shot rang out, all to be replaced by panic and fear that something had happened to the blonde.

As she rushed around the trainyard, her thoughts raced. Surely Kara would not be able to complete the kill. Kara was like the sun. She was bright and pure and wonderful, incapable of the atrocities someone like herself was guilty of. She heard voices and knew she was getting close.

Another shot rang out and a moment later she stepped out from behind a caboose and saw Snow, her lifeless body splayed out on the ground, and Kara...standing over her with her gun drawn.

The world ground to a halt around the agent. She had done it. Kara had...actually killed someone. Bile rose in her throat and dread flowed through her veins. Her knees began to shake and she had to clutch the side of the train car for support. 

William’s voice echoed inside her head as he spoke. _“Well? What’s happening?”_

Lena swallowed harshly and inhaled, forcing air into her lungs.

“Kara is a spy,” she choked out.

_“Yes!”_

Lena fell back against the train car. Kara had killed the mole and the woman she loved along with her.

***

Kara paced around Hank’s apartment, thinking over the events of the night.

“What does all of this mean, Hank? I mean, technically, I failed my test.”

Hank handed her a glass of scotch to help calm her nerves. He sat down on the couch and spoke softly. “You need to understand something, Kara. To Lena, William, and Haley, you passed the test. To them, _you_ killed Snow, doing exactly what you were trained to do.”

“Yeah, except that I _didn’t_ do it. _You_ did.”

Hank sighed and fixed her with a stern glare. “Kara, I’m a civilian now. Which means, technically under the law, what happened tonight was murder. And no one can know the truth about that. Ever. Not even Luthor. She would be implicated too.”

Kara tossed her head back against the back of the couch and groaned. “But all of that means that I’m still not a real spy. I don’t know who I am...I don’t know _what_ I am!”

Hank shook his head and stood up, signaling that it was time for her to go. “Can’t answer that one for you, Kara.”

Kara drained her scotch and set the glass down, rising from the couch and walking toward the door. As she reached for the handle, she stopped and turned back to Hank.

“Hey...why did you do it?”

He shrugged. “Because you weren’t going to. You’re not a killer, Kara.”

She gave him a small smile. “Thanks.”

He nodded and she opened the door, pulling out her phone to dial Lena. After everything that had happened, she was the one person who she wanted to talk to most about this.

The line rang and rang. “Come on, Lena, pick up.”

She pushed open the door to her apartment as the phone continued to ring, and she spotted a padded envelope on her kitchen table -- the same kind that Lena had given her for her missions.

Hanging up the phone, she closed the door and walked slowly into the apartment. “Lena?” She called into the quiet home.

There was no answer. She walked quickly over to the table and ripped open the envelope, letting the contents spill out onto the table. There was a gun, a passport, a badge, a plane ticket to D.C., and another portable player, which she opened and let play through as she looked at her new possessions.

_“Good evening, Kara.”_ Haley appeared on screen in her pre-recorded message. _“Congratulations. You are now officially an agent. Included is a plane ticket to Washington for your immediate final induction and processing.”_

Kara stared down at the ticket, the shock of everything truly hitting her for the first time that night. She was a spy. She was officially a member of the CIA and she had the badge to prove it. 

The recording blinked off and self-destructed a moment later, and she waved the smoke away, picking up her phone to dial Lena again. She didn’t want to leave without talking to her, without telling her that it wasn’t what it seemed. But the line continued to ring without interruption until her voicemail picked up.

“Lena, hey, it’s me. I need to talk to you. About...about everything. They want me to fly to D.C. tonight and I just...I really need to talk to you first. Please just call me back as soon as you get this.”

***

Across town, Lena sat in The Tower and stared at her phone screen, the night’s events washing over her. Kara’s smiling face was her contact screen and it felt like someone entirely different in that photo than who she had seen tonight. Someone she loved. Someone who was gone. She clicked ‘Decline’.

William slowly approached her and leaned against the table. “Are you okay?”

Lena rubbed her temple and shook her head. “I just--I just didn’t think that she would do it. And now I realise that...it’s my fault that she did.”

He furrowed his brow and sat down next to her. “Kara made her own choice. And, like the rest of us, she did it to serve her country.”

Tears filled Lena’s eyes as she looked away from him. “At dinner she said...she said she wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for me. And she was right.”

The tears fell down her cheeks, unable to be contained at the thought of what she had done to the woman she had loved.

“Are you still in love with her?”

Lena opened her eyes, still facing away from him. 

“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “Not anymore.”

Her heart protested but she knew the truth. The woman she had loved was gone. The Kara that she had fallen so hard for would never have been able to do what she had done tonight. She didn’t fall in love with Kara the cold, calm spy. She had fallen in love with Kara with the hero’s heart of gold, who loved computers and superheroes and potstickers. And no matter what happened after tonight, that Kara would always be tainted with the stain of murder. She had failed to keep Kara safe. Even from her. Even from herself.

“It’s just,” she continued, wiping her eyes, “She’s not going to be the same person again. I know I wasn’t. I remember everything about my Red Test.”

She remembered it like it was yesterday. A small street in Paris after dark. A blonde woman walking toward her. The cold steel of the gun hidden in her pocket.

“A street name and a time to be there. No name. Just a photo. And it was all happening the way it was supposed to and then...and then she dropped something, like a piece of jewelry -- a bracelet, I think, and I just couldn’t do it -- not with her on the ground like that. So I just...kept walking. And then in a reflection I saw her reaching for a weapon. At least, I _thought_ she was reaching. So I shot her. And I wanted to go back and make sure but it was...there was no time. I could already hear the sirens.”

William reached out and rubbed her back in slow, comforting circles. “It’s never easy. But, in the end, it helps to save lives. Never forget that.”

“It was the worst day of my life,” Lena replied shortly, standing up and walking away. 

It was the day her normal life ended and her lonely spy life had begun. How could she ever forget that? And now she had damned Kara to the same fate.

***

Kara sat at the table in silence. Her flight was leaving in an hour. If she wanted to make it on time, she needed to be leaving now. Her bag was packed and sitting by the door, but still she waited for Lena. She had to call, right? 

A knock at the front door stirred her from her musings and she leapt up out of her chair in relief. “Lena, thank God.”

She pulled the door open with a soft smile. “Hey.”

But it wasn’t Lena at the door. “Good evening, Agent Danvers. Your flight to Washington leaves in an hour. I’m here to take you to the airport. Are you ready?”

Kara stared at the freshfaced agent in front of her. There was no more waiting for Lena. She wasn't coming and she wasn't calling. This was it. Her future was waiting. Gathering her bag, she nodded.

“Ready.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara becomes an agent. The Superfriends band together to help her win Lena back. William makes a harrowing discovery.

The moment Kara stepped out of Reagan International, she knew that her life had changed. She carried herself taller, her suit seemed sharper, even the air seemed to be buzzing with promise and resolve. As the town car drifted through the historic heart of America toward DNI headquarters, Kara tried to keep herself calm. 

Haley, William, and Lena were all under the impression that she had killed the mole. She was a real agent now, with a badge and a gun to prove it. Real missions were on the horizon and a big fat bonus check for all of her training had deposited into her account just that morning, where it was collecting a healthy amount of interest every minute that it sat there.

So why did she feel so empty? There was only one answer: Lena. 

The agent had never called her back last night, and all of her calls and messages this morning had also gone unanswered. Kara could not understand why Lena was avoiding her. This was what they had been waiting for, right? For Kara to be official? There was nothing stopping them being together now, and Lena had seemed open to the idea of giving things another try. 

Maybe Kara had misread the signs again. Maybe Lena was happy with William. The thought made her stomach sink like a stone. She couldn’t stand the thought of losing Lena, but to lose her to a stiff like _William Dey?_ Sure he was handsome and a great spy, but where was the charm? Where was the fun? She hadn’t thought Lena liked the strong, silent type, but maybe she’d been wrong there too.

As the car came to a stop, she tried to put Lena out of her mind. It was time to meet with Haley and receive her first assignment. This was it.

***

“Okay, first day. Just breathe,” she said to herself as she pushed the elevator button. Shifting from side to side, she waited for the doors to open. 

_Wait. What floor was it again? Five? Yeah. No wait...shit._ Her first day and she was already panicking.

The lift dinged to announce the arrival of the car. As the doors slid open, an agent went to brush past Kara, but she stopped him short.

“Uh excuse me, sorry! I’m so sorry to bother you, but you wouldn’t happen to know what floor General Haley is on, would you? They told me at the front desk and I just completely forgot.”

The agent rolled his eyes at her and pushed past, ignoring her question.

“You couldn’t miss her! Tall, brown eyes, lots of medals?” The agent kept walking. “Nice. Nice friendly conversation. That’s good. I’m glad we did that,” she muttered, turning back to the elevator doors just in time to see them close again. 

“Crap!”

By the time the next elevator car rolled around, she had remembered Haley’s floor (she was right, it was five) and she was feeling decidedly less panicked...at least until she got off on level five and had to figure out where Haley’s office was. That took her another good ten minutes, but finally she made it.

Pushing open the door, she breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Haley’s secretary answering calls with, “NSA, General Haley’s office, please hold.” 

“Here we are,” she said to herself, closing the door. “Thank God.”

Several other people were in the waiting room, all men of varying degrees of age and seriousness. She flashed them all a smile and a “how ya doing?” and received nothing but stony silence in return. Turning back to the secretary, she blew out a breath. “Tough crowd.”

“Excuse me,” she addressed the secretary between calls, “I’m here to see--”

“Have a seat, Agent Danvers,” the secretary cut in. “The General knows you’re here.”

Kara leaned back from the desk, bewildered. “Right. Okay.” She made her way over to an empty chair and sat down, but immediately jumped back up as the butt of her pistol dug into her spine.

“Argh!” She pulled it out of her waistband and settled down into her seat. “God, these things are _incredibly_ uncomfortable. Is there a particular place that you like to put this?” She turned to the agent next to her, brandishing her pistol around. “Because I’m always having to--”

The agent reached out and lowered the barrel of her gun down to the floor without saying a word.

Kara blanched. “Oh! Oh right, yes. Sorry about that.” She laughed anxiously. “I just--finger always on the slide and, you know, it’s empty anyway.” She slid the clip out to show him and then put it back. “But I hear ya! Safety first!” She tapped the side of her head with the pistol. The agent stared at her in horror.

The door to Haley’s office opened and she stepped out with another man in uniform, exchanging pleasantries.

“Agent Danvers,” the General called out. Kara jumped up out of her chair. “For God’s sake, put that gun away, you’re a spy now!”

Kara paled and quickly fumbled the pistol back into her waistband, making a mental note to try to find a discreet holster as she followed Haley into her office and closed the door.

“Well, uh, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about, General.”

“Your first assignment just arrived,” Haley began, as if Kara hadn’t spoken. “The CIA wants you in Rome right away.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Um. Right away?!”

Haley nodded, glasses perched on her nose as she surveyed the file in front of her. “You will be posing as an independently wealthy young expatriate. That way your jetsetting lifestyle and influential associates won’t draw attention. Here’s where you’ll be staying.” She handed a photo over to Kara and the novice agent nearly fainted at the size of the sprawling villa that the CIA was intending to send her to.

“Uh...wow…”

“Obviously you will be afforded all of the accoutrements that go with it: cars, clothes, a yearly stipend--”

Kara’s head shot up. “ _Yearly?!_ A _yearly_ stipend?” Her pulse was racing. ‘Yearly’ implied more than one. How long were they planning to keep her there?! 

Haley frowned at her outburst and Kara could feel her breaths coming shorter. “This is all moving very, very fast, don’t you think?”

Haley removed her glasses and narrowed her eyes at Kara. “The NSA has spent the past two years and countless millions of dollars helping you to reach your potential, not to mention the decade of work that went into the Intersect project itself, there’s nothing _fast_ about it, Kara.”

Kara sighed and handed her the photo back. “I get that, I do. And I certainly don’t want to come across as--as being ungrateful for the villa or the car or the stipend or…” She trailed off as her panic threatened to overwhelm her. “I’m just not sure that I am really ready to pack up and move somewhere to live this whole new life, when I’m _just_ starting to become comfortable with the life I’m living right now, you know?”

Haley stared at her in disbelief. “What exactly did you think that we were training you for, Ms. Danvers?”

“I don’t--I don’t really know what to say, General.” She swallowed and looked down at her hands. “I’m sorry--”

“Is _not_ an option!” Haley finished for her, rising from her chair hotly. She sighed, reigning in her temper as she walked around her desk to stand in front of Kara.

“Listen Kara, I understand that the hand-wringing and the second guessing are all part of your process. So here’s what I’m offering: take the week off. Anywhere you want to go, on us. Gather your thoughts. Get some fresh air or whatever it is you do. But afterwards, I expect you back in Washington and ready to assemble your team, is that understood?”

Kara perked up at her words. “Wait wait, go back a second. What do you mean by ‘my team’?”

Haley furrowed her brow. “You didn’t think we were going to send you to Rome _alone_ , did you?”

Kara stared back at her in confusion. Haley continued in her silence.

“You’ll have your pick of our top agents. Whomever you want!”

Kara’s eyes widened. She would have a team and could pick her own agents?? This changed everything.

And there was only one girl for the job.

As she left Haley’s office, the girl at the desk offered to make her travel arrangements for her. “Where will we be sending you? Paris? Bali?”

“National City,” she replied with a smug grin. 

The girl looked at her with thinly veiled disgust, like she was repulsed by Kara’s taste in vacation destinations, but Kara was flying too high to care. 

“Will you be needing a companion ticket?”

Kara smiled. “No thanks. She’s still there.”

***

The whole flight back, Lena was the only thought on Kara’s mind. She had one week to win Lena back. One week to convince her to come to Rome with her, to be on her team, to give her another shot. Otherwise, what was the point of doing all of this? Yes, being a spy was incredible, and it felt good to be helping people and moving forward to do something productive with her life, but the more Kara thought about it, the more it became clear that it was all pointless without Lena. 

Lena had changed her life, tilted her whole world off of its axis. Lena was the one who had made her believe that she was capable of so much more, but that she didn’t need to be anyone she wasn’t. That her own brand of compassionate spywork was just as valid. That being 'just Kara' was enough. 

When she landed in National City, she raced to the florist, buying roses, and then got some of Lena’s favourite chocolates. She needed a strong plan to win the agent back, and she called in her best friend to help her do it.

“I’ve never had to win a girl back,” she uttered nervously, pulling the chocolates out of the grocery bag. “So I stopped by the store on the way here and got Lena a bunch of stuff.”

Winn took in the roses and chocolates and his brows knit together. “Uh huh.”

“What do you think?” Kara asked, desperate for help. “Am I overdoing it?”

Winn tilted his head back and forth and made a noncommittal noise. 

“You think I’m overdoing it, don’t you?”

“Welllll…”

“I’m overdoing it.” She tossed the flowers onto the table in front of her and put her hands on top of her head, pacing around the dining room.

“No, I mean...the chocolates are a nice touch, I guess, but I just don’t think you’re gonna be able to like, _buy_ her back, if that makes any sense.”

Kara threw her head back and groaned. “I know, I know, you’re right. I just--it just finally clicked for me, you know? Lena is the most important thing. I mean, what’s the point of being a spy without her? I’ve got to win her back, and I’ve only got a small window of opportunity to do it in before I have to leave for Rome!”

Winn screwed his mouth to the side in hard thought as the front door opened, revealing Kelly.

“Hey guys,” she called, dropping her keys into the dish. 

“Hey,” they replied, and then turned back to the task at hand.

“Wait a sec,” Winn shook his head in confusion, “you’re going to _Rome_?”

“Yeah, my new assignment starts there next week.”

Kelly stopped in her tracks. “Wait, so you _are_ still leaving? Thank God!”

Kara and Winn looked at her in confusion, and on Kara’s part, a little hurt. As if realising how that sounded, Kelly rushed to fix it. “No no! Not like that! I just-- Alex is finally coming around to the idea of a destination honeymoon because she thought you were going to be gone on assignment, but if she thinks you’re back, you know she won’t go, and I, for one, would like to celebrate my marriage somewhere other than National City, so…”

“Well I’m not going anywhere without Lena,” Kara replied solemnly.

“Then let’s get you two kids back together!” Kelly clapped her hands together brightly. “Shouldn’t be too difficult, right? You’re perfect together!”

“Have you _seen_ the stallion she’s dating?” Another voice came from down the hall and the trio whipped their heads toward the noise, finding Hank exiting Kara’s bedroom, clearly having entered through her window.

Kara groaned. “Dude, do you _ever_ knock?”

Hank ignored her. “Dey’s not some geek who likes to talk about his feelings all the time. He’s a _real_ spy.”

Kara bristled at his words. “Oh? Oh really? Well maybe you didn’t hear, because you no longer work for the United States Government, but I’m heading up my own undercover operation.”

“In _Rome_ ,” Winn added with a sneer.

“And I get to choose my own team,” she added, raising an eyebrow in his direction.

Hank’s face shifted. “Really? Anyone? Including a civilian with an extensive military background?”

Kara smiled at his thinly veiled hope. She opened her mouth to answer when Winn cut in.

“Yeah, take a number, Henshaw.” He turned to her. “Kara, I speak fluent Italian...mostly menu items. I’d be an invaluable asset. If anyone should be on the team, it should be me!”

Kelly shook her head and snickered to herself at his antics.

Kara raised her hands to rein them all in. “Listen guys, I’ve gotta get Lena back first, then we can start talking about a team.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s help her get her girl back!”

“Yeah, so Alex and I can go to Hawaii or Bora Bora,” Kelly quickly agreed.

“And I can get the hell out of National City,” Hank growled.

“And I can finally go see Rome! Maybe meet a nice Italian girl. See the Vatican. Pay my respects to the Pope,” Winn finished with a smile.

Kara grinned. She had her team in place. All that was missing was the girl.

***

Kara hurtled down the steps into The Tower and found Lena bent over a desk sorting through files, a frown plastered onto her lovely features. God, she was stunning. She needed to win her back. She just had to.

“Hey,” she greeted brightly, not knowing where to start. “Um--”

“You’re back?” Lena asked in confusion, not looking at her.

“Yeah, I’ve um...I’ve been calling you for a couple of days now. You know, there’s a lot of stuff we need to talk about…”

Lena brushed past her with a stack of papers, still not meeting her eyes. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. Things have just been a little…”

“Crazy?” Kara finished for her, growing more anxious with every second that Lena brushed her off. “Yeah, I know. Haley flew me to Washington. I got my badge! It’s official now, I’m an agent!”

Lena’s face turned stony as she pushed past the blonde again, nostrils flared and lips pressed into a thin line. “Congratulations, you earned it,” she replied, her voice dripping with disdain.

Kara frowned at her tone and body language, struggling to try to lighten the mood and figure out what was going on. Was she just having a bad day? Had Kara done something to upset her?

“You know the agency is sending me to Italy? You wouldn’t believe the villa they’re putting me up in. I’m supposed to be some rich, young...playboy-type…” She trailed off at the look of anger Lena was shooting at the page in front of her. 

“But who cares about that,” she continued, getting to the point of her visit. “The point is, Lena...I want you to go with me.”

Lena closed her eyes and sighed. “Kara, I can’t.”

“No no! You don’t have to worry about interfering assignments! Haley said I get to choose my own team, the cream of the crop, whoever I want, and that’s you!”

Lena finally met her eyes, her expression schooled into impassivity. “I’m going to Washington, okay? And I’m going with William.”

Kara’s heart sank. But this wasn’t what they’d agreed on. Something had changed. One minute Lena had seemed on board with starting over, and now she was leaving with William? 

“W-wait a minute, wasn’t this the plan?” Her voice trembled as she stepped closer to the agent, who had gone back to organising the files on the desk and pointedly not looking at her. “There’s nothing stopping us from being together now. I passed my spy test!”

Lena stood up tall and faced her again, meeting her eyes, her own blazing with disappointment and barely concealed hurt. “That’s _why_ I can’t be with you, okay? You’re not...you’re not the same person I fell for.” She turned away, as if she was unable to hold Kara’s gaze for too long.

Kara’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Wh--how? Why? Because I’m an agent now? How am I not the same person?”

“Because you _killed someone_ , Kara!” Lena cried, turning back to her, eyes alight with pain. “I saw you kill the mole!”

_Oh._

Kara’s heart sank to her stomach. How could she explain this to her? How could she tell her that what she saw, wasn’t what she saw? She’d sound like she was gaslighting her! But now, her secret with Hank was the only thing standing between them and happiness…

“Lena,” she began slowly, trying to choose her words carefully, “I know what you think you saw on the train tracks...but it’s not that simple. It’s more complicated than that. It’s not what you think...and I really need you to believe me.”

She watched in agony as Lena gently shook her head, her blue-green eyes filling with unshed tears. 

“I’m sorry, I...I don’t.”

Kara felt her fingers go numb and her heart begin to fracture and crack into a million pieces. If she could just tell her the truth...but Hank would go to jail, and he had only been trying to help her. 

“Hope I’m not interrupting.” 

William stepped into the command center, arms folded over his chest. “Congratulations on your promotion, Special Agent Danvers.”

Kara shoved aside her pain and her irritation with the man in front of her and shook the hand he had extended to her, thanking him.

“So! What brings you back to National City? Thought you’d be halfway to Rome by now!”

“Um, I was just…” She turned back to Lena, who was back to staring down at the pages in front of her. “Just--just tying up a few loose ends.”

“Actually, Kara was just wondering if I had any last minute advice on her new assignment in Rome,” Lena cut in, her voice scalding against Kara’s broken heart.

“Well then, you shouldn’t have come to her, Kara,” William replied with a grin, “you should have come to me! I was stationed in Rome for two years! Come on,” he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her away from Lena. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

“Oh great,” she replied, letting him lead her out the door. She looked back forlornly over her shoulder at Lena to find her green gaze locked on her too. 

The promise of an unfinished conversation hung in the air between them.

***

When she could finally get away from William, feeding him some line about needing to get to work, she felt the weight of her conversation with Lena weighing heavy on her. All she had to do was tell her that Hank had killed the mole, and Lena would see that she hadn’t changed. But then Hank would go to jail. She couldn’t do that to him. But if she didn’t tell Lena, she would fly off to Washington with William, never knowing that what she thought she saw wasn’t real. And Kara couldn’t even blame her for believing it. Hank had been well hidden, Kara had been standing over the mole, gun in her hand. Her pistol _had_ discharged that night, just not at Snow, but how was Lena to know that?

As she slumped through the doors to the Nerd Herd, she couldn’t help the hopelessness that overtook her, even as Hank bounded up to her, asking how the talk had gone.

“How did it go with Luthor?”

Kara lowered her voice and checked to make sure no one was listening. “Because she thinks I killed the mole, she thinks I’m no longer the girl she fell in love with. I have to tell her the truth, Hank.”

Hank’s eyes widened. “What, that I killed him? Uh uh. Not gonna happen.”

“Hank, you said it yourself, she was a traitor!”

“Yeah well, according to the United States Government, so am I. I’m lucky Haley didn’t put a bullet in my head. Get her back some other way, Kara.”

She threw her head back in frustration. “Well, what the heck am I supposed to tell her?!”

“Tell her whatever you want, just not the truth!” When Kara looked unconvinced, he added, “You like being a full-fledged spy, don’t you? You like that nice villa the CIA picked out for you in Rome, right? Then you killed the mole, that’s how it’s gotta be!”

Kara stared at him silently. This wasn’t worth it. Nothing was worth lying to Lena. She had done enough lying to the people she loved to last her a lifetime, and she didn’t want to start a future with the woman she loved based on a falsehood.

“Hey! How did it go?” Winn came rushing up to the pair, eyes bright with hope.

“Crashed and burned,” Henshaw grunted.

Winn sighed in disappointment. “Kara, did you tell her how you feel?”

Kara swallowed hard and shoved down her anguish. “Forget it. She’s leaving with William in the morning. Sorry guys, it’s over. I’m gonna go get some fresh air and try and figure out how to tell General Haley that I’m quitting.”

Hank and Winn watched her walk away, shoulders hunched dejectedly, as if they were carrying the weight of an entire planet, and Hank sighed.

“Well, there goes our chance of ever getting out of the Nerd Herd.”

Winn rolled his eyes at the note of finality in his words. “Really? Is that what they teach you in the Marines? Roll over and die?”

“This isn’t exactly combat, Winn,” Hank replied with a sneer.

“Ah but that’s where you’re wrong, Hank. Because love? Love is a battlefield.”  
  


Hank rolled his eyes but nodded in ascension as Winn turned and began walking toward the backroom. “I’ve got an idea.”

They found Nia and Brainy in the claims area messing around with a busted microphone and keyboard, and putting on a heck of a performance of Aerosmith's "Dream On". How they had not been fired was anybody’s guess. Probably just because they had been there for so long. They were stitched into the fabric of the store, just as much a part of it as the foundations. And if you got rid of the foundations, the whole operation would crumble.

“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt the live show, but we need your help. Well, actually, Kara needs your help.”

Nia dropped the microphone and raised an eyebrow. “Went and lost her lady friend again?”

“Yeah,” Winn replied, bewildered. “How did you know that?”

“We know everything,” Brainy replied. “We’re the eyes and the ears of the strip mall, my good sir.”

“Kara better move quick if she wants to get her little potsticker back,” Nia continued, “because there’s another fella sniffing around the sexy vampire lady.”

Winn frowned in confusion. “Vampire lady?”

“That guy knows how to fill out a pair of slacks,” she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. “If you know what I mean.”

“No I don’t.”

“You want us to put a tail on him? Find out his weaknesses? See what skeletons are in his closet? Blood sample? Urinalysis? ...Stool?”

Hank grimaced and Winn shuddered. “No! I just--I just need to borrow your van and some of your equipment!”

Nia rolled her eyes and tossed him the keys. “Bring her back with a full tank and without a scratch.”

“You got it.”

He turned to walk away when Nia grabbed his arm, yanking him back. “And if you happen to stain the carpet with...any fluids...please have them cleaned before you return her to me. I don’t need that kind of heat on me.”

She let go of him with a pointed look and he just nodded uncomfortably. 

“Hope you know what you’re doing,” Hank muttered as they walked away from the odd couple. “Getting those two involved seems like a bad idea.”

“Yeah, I’m sort of thinking that myself,” Winn replied with a grimace.

***

Kara’s worn Converse scuffed the pavement as she shuffled down the sidewalk that night, hands in her pockets. She was no closer to figuring out a way to break the news to Haley that she was refusing to be a spy -- but then she wasn’t really putting that much thought into it. When it came down to it, she would just have to rip the bandaid off. That was really the only way. She was more concerned with what would happen to her after she refused. Would she be locked away? Would she be kept in National City with new handlers? Would she ever see Lena again? Would Lena even care?

_Lena._ The ghost of her name sat heavy on her tongue and echoed around her mind. How had things gotten so far off track? How had they drifted so far from the place they had been in that motel room and before the Intersect 2.0? How had this one woman come to represent all that was good in her life, and how had she managed to lose her?

She willed her mind not to go to the deep, dark, self-deprecating places that it was trying to go. The place that told her that she lost her because she was still the same loser working at the Nerd Herd, no ambition, no drive. But Lena had shown her that that wasn’t true. She did want more. She did reach out every day to take another handful of what she wanted. It just wasn’t enough anymore. If she didn’t have Lena, it never would be.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of squealing tires as a van pulled up to the curb next to her, and two black clad figures sprung out of the vehicle. 

“Whoa! What--” She stopped short when she saw Hank and Kelly, dressed in all black, blocking her path. “What the crap is going on?! You guys scared the bejeezus out of me!”

“We’re here to help you reacquire Agent Luthor,” Hank replied matter of factly.

Kara dropped her chin to her chest in frustration. “Guys, you don’t understand--”

“No, Kara,” came Winn’s voice from the driver’s seat, “ _you_ don’t understand.”

“You’re not the only one with something at stake here, Kara,” Kelly added.

“Yeah,” Hank continued, “we help you get the girl back, you help us get out of National City. That was the deal, right?” 

“Think of it as a test run for Rome!” Winn finished excitedly.

Kara sighed, but before she could protest, Kelly had reached into the van and handed her a garment bag. “Get dressed. Reservation is in ten minutes!”

Then she shoved the blonde into the van and followed her in, pulling the door closed.

“Reservation for what?! And why do you have Nia’s van?!”

***

They sat parked across from an upscale restaurant in Midtown, as Kara finished lint rolling her suit. The trio had not explained their plan to her whatsoever and she was starting to get really annoyed at being accosted like this.

“Target is on the move,” Hank muttered, and when Kara looked out the window, she saw Lena with William in rapid conversation as they headed into the restaurant.

She sighed, “Guys, what are we doing here? They’re on a date.”

“Wow,” Winn breathed, ignoring her, “now _that_ guy can fill out a pair of slacks. He’s a real stallion.”

A low burning rage bloomed in her chest and she huffed out her nose. 

“Don’t listen to him, Kara,” said Kelly, turning to face her. “We have a plan! You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Winn grabbed Nia’s long range microphone and directed it at the window of the restaurant, honing in on Lena and William’s conversation.

_“1990 Chateau Latour, an excellent choice,”_ the waiter was saying as they tuned in.

“Knowledge of fine wines...very classy,” Winn acknowledged as they listened. Kara rolled her eyes.

“He just ordered for both of them! That’s a power move!” Kelly added, her binoculars pressed to her face. Kara shifted her weight in irritation, crossing and uncrossing her legs.

“Yeah well, the guy’s a closer,” Hank agreed, watching the situation like a hawk.

“Guys!” Kara cried. “A little sensitivity would go a long way here, I think. Just a smidge. We are, after all, talking about the woman I love here!”

They all murmured apologetically as they watched the pair toast.

_“To a new life, and a fresh start in Washington,”_ William uttered, clinking their glasses. _“No National City, no baggage.”_

“Ooookay, this isn’t good. We’ve gotta get them away from each other,” said Kelly, turning to face Hank. “Why doesn’t Hank here just drag him out of there?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid my days of legalised body snatching are over, guys. I’m a civilian now. This one’s on you, Danvers.”

Kelly turned to face Kara. “Okay, whatever you do Kara, do not go in there too hot. You will scare her away.”

Winn shook his head. “What? No, that’s not right at all. Kara _has_ to lay it all on the line. William may be handsome and worldly and has a sexy British accent and knows his way around a menu but…man, he’s stiff as a board! Where’s that patented Danvers charm? The pizzazz! You flash a smile, you go in there and--”

“Winn! Why don’t you let me handle it?” Kelly said with a condescending smile as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “No offense, but I’ve had my fair share of ladies.”

“Yeah because you live in a bubble!” Winn cried, turning the rearview mirror to face her. “Take a look at yourself. It’s a -- it’s a freakish bubble of beauty! Now, look at me: no bubble. I don’t have that luxury. I’ve gotta be _completely_ verbal! Kara, too!”

He turned back to Kara. “Now buddy, I’m telling you, you go in there and you be fun, and you be witty, and you be the charming girl she fell for, okay? You’ll be just fine.”

Kara decided to ignore that fact that he had essentially called her ugly and just focus on the part where he called her witty and charming. 

“Okay, fine. But what about William?”

Winn grinned. “You just worry about the girl. I’ll take care of the stallion.”

*** 

Further up the street, a utility van sat parked with its lights off, the men inside silent as they scoped out the restaurant.

“Target is in sight, sir,” one of the men said to the other.

“Looks like a romantic dinner,” he replied. “Sorry, Dey.”

They directed their microphone toward Agent Dey’s table and listened in as the waiter approached. 

_“Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Dey, but you have a phone call.”_

They watched as William rose from the table and walked away. 

“Target’s on the move. Let’s get a line on that call.”

The man next to him began tapping into the line, bringing up the audio. A heavily distorted voice came through the speaker.

_“Agent Dey. I’m an operative of Leviathan. If you want to save everyone in this restaurant, you will listen to my instructions very carefully, and you will do everything that I say.”_

“Who the hell is that?” The man in the van asked his partner.

“Don’t know sir, it doesn’t appear to be one of ours.”

_“Exit the restaurant through the side door and head to the back alley.”_

The man scoped out the restaurant and did not see William. “We’ve lost visual on the target.”

His partner nodded. “Alright, take him down.”

***

_“Stay cool and nobody will get hurt.”_

William stepped out of the restaurant into the cool night air, phone pressed to his ear, listening to the instructions being doled out to him. Whoever it was knew the layout of the entire block. They had to be close by.

_“...from there, you’ll head to a pay phone at the southwest corner. Do it! But do it slowly. Slooooowly. We know exactly what you look like, William. Six foot two, 220 pounds, rippling muscles,_ very _attractive.”_

William removed his gun from his waistband and peered around the corner, toward the alley behind the restaurant. A figure was walking toward him, speaking into a voice changer on top of their cell phone. When he saw who it was, he rolled his eyes in anger and frustration.

Winn was walking toward him, a stupid grin on his face, giving nonsensical instructions. “...wait for a phone call. Might not happen right away, so be _patient_. And then when you--”

William darted out, thrusting him against the alley wall, knocking his phone out of his hand in the process. 

“You moron! Do you have any idea who these people are? What they’re capable of?”

“Dude it’s just a harmless prank, don’t get your extremely tight slacks in a twist!”

Winn’s eyes widened as two men entered the alley, one pointing a taser at the pair.

William saw them at the same moment and gripped the back of Winn’s jacket, pulling the shorter man in front of him like a shield.

“Sorry about this, Winn.” 

Winn had but a second to question what he meant before the electrodes pierced his shirt and he dropped to the ground, writhing from the feeling of lightning under his skin.

William pounced on the attackers, shoving one headfirst against the side of a dumpster, where he slumped to the ground, before turning his attention to the other, knocking him out swiftly with a few punches.

Breathing heavily, a realisation dawned on him. If they were after him, they’d know he was with…

“Lena!”

He raced around the corner, out of the alley, back toward the restaurant.

***

“Man down!” Winn shouted into his walkie talkie, recovering from his dance with the taser. “I can’t feel my legs. Bring a stretcher! Or a wheelbarrow...possibly a change of pants!”

Kelly watched in horror as William came barrelling out of the alley in singleminded focus toward the restaurant. If he got there and saw Kara...who knows what he might do!

“Hank, you gotta do something! He’s gunning for Kara!”

Hank gritted his teeth and gripped the steering wheel. “I’m a civilian now. I can’t.”

Kelly set her jaw and squared her shoulders, tapping into her dormant military training. “If you can’t, then I will.” 

She threw open the door to the van and rushed around the side sprinting toward the agent across the street. There was no plan. She just had to stop him from getting to Kara.

***

“Agent Dey,” a voice called, followed by the sound of a pistol cocking, and William came to an abrupt halt, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath. 

“If you’re gonna shoot me, just do it,” he replied, turning to face the Leviathan agent. “Put a bullet in my head.”

“Bullet?” The man replied with a grin, holstering his weapon. “The Director wants to meet with you face to face.”

He held out an arm, directing him toward his van, and William only had a split second’s warning before a thin, lithe, yet surprisingly strong body slammed into his, crashing through the glass window and collapsing onto the ground next to him.

His head pounded where it had hit the table and as he turned, the blurry figure of Kelly Olsen came into his view and he rolled his eyes.

“Next time, go for the guy with the gun, Kelly.”

***

Kara swallowed her nerves and pushed the door to the restaurant open, hoping that whatever plan her friends had would keep William away long enough to say what she needed to say to Lena.

As she made her way to the table in front of the window, she took a second to marvel at how stunning Lena really was. Kara thought she could live for a million years and never see anything half as beautiful as she was, and her heartbeat exploded with every step closer.

She was pulled out of her revery when Lena’s eyes met hers from across the room, and a look of confusion graced her features as the blonde approached, dropping into the chair across from her.

“Kara, what are you doing here?” Her lilting voice was like a balm to Kara’s wretched heart and she was desperate to be bathed in it again.

“I’m here for you,” she replied softly.

“What do you want me to say?” Lena replied, a stray note of anger in her tone.

“I want you to say that you’ll come with me to Rome.”

Lena sighed heavily. “Well, you know that I can’t and you know the reason why.”

“Lena please,” she uttered, her voice breaking. “I don’t want to have to make a scene in front of all of these nice people, but I will literally do _anything_ to change your mind.”

“Well then tell me what really happened on the train tracks that night. You say it’s not what I think, then what is it? If you didn’t kill the mole, then who did?”

Kara let her eyes fall closed as she struggled internally with the desire to confess everything to the woman in front of her. She let out a breath and opened her eyes, taking in Lena’s pained expression.

“Look, I don’t want there to be any secrets or lies between us ever again,” she met Lena’s eyes and let her own beg their own silent plea. “So, please, just let me have this one. And I promise I will never lie to you ever again.”

Lena met her eyes with an agonisingly soft look -- like she _desperately_ wanted to believe Kara, but couldn’t let herself trust her again.

“Listen, I know that you think that I’m not the same girl you met that first day at the Nerd Herd, and you know what? You’re right, okay? You’re right. The girl that I was back then hated herself for not knowing what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, or who she wanted to spend it with. But now? Finally now, I know. I want to be a spy. And I want to be with you.”

Lena’s eyes were round and glistening and so very, very green. “What are you saying, Kara?”

“I’m saying...I’m saying that I--”

Her words were cut off by Kelly and William crashing through the window next to them and into their table, the wood collapsing like a house of matches.

Kara and Lena stared down at the pair in shock as William gasped for air.

“Next time, go for the guy with the gun, Kelly.”

Kelly just stared at him in confusion.

***

Alex tried to control the anger that was brewing under her skin as she paid the bail for the three idiots, who followed her out the door, heads hung in shame.

“Jail?! _Jail?!_ Seriously guys?! I mean, Winn I’d expect this from you, but babe, I never expected this from _you_.”

Kelly stepped forward apologetically, raising her hands in a placating manner. “Baby, I am so sorry--”

“No, you know what? Just save the apology, okay? I want answers. I want the truth! I want you guys to tell me everything!”

“We were helping Kara,” Hank started, but was cut off quickly by Alex rolling her eyes.

“Kara is in D.C., Hank.”

“No, she was,” Winn corrected. “She’s back to try to win back Lena.”

Alex surveyed the trio in front of her in disbelief. She covered her eyes and shook her head before speaking again.

“Hold on a minute. You guys expect me to believe that the three of you got my fiancée beat up and thrown in jail to _save my sister’s love life?!_ ”

Winn nodded quickly.

Kelly replied softly, “Yes, yes we did.”

Hank added sardonically, “We’re as shocked as you are.”

“And what’s more,” Alex continued, her expression somewhere between rage and amusement at the situation they found themselves in, “Kara came to _you three_ for relationship advice...before me.”

The trio nodded solemnly.

Alex threw her hands in the air. 

“Why am I not surprised this ended in jail?!”

***

“Agent Dey, we have just received intel that the Leviathan agent who tried to capture you is the same man who removed a data drive from inside the mole’s body.”

Lena and William were standing in the command center of The Tower being briefed on Leviathan’s failed attempt to capture him, with Haley on the monitor before them.

“The data was inside her?” William asked, bewildered.

“She was in the process of digesting it when she was killed. I’ll spare you the gory details, but we do have surveillance footage of the excision.”

Haley hit a button on her keyboard and the footage popped up on their screen, showing the same agent in the DNI morgue, using a device that acted like a powerful magnet, drawing the flashdrive up out of Snow’s stomach and up her windpipe, finally reaching into her mouth to remove it.

Lena winced at the screen. “Gross.”

“Lucky she was dead first,” William quipped.

“We believe the stolen data drive contains highly sensitive case files. Your new mission is to bring back those files.”

William stepped toward the screen, squaring his shoulders and lifting his chin. “General, if I may, that’s not good enough.”

Haley looked shocked at his impertinence. “Excuse me? Do you have a better idea?”

“The Leviathan agent we encountered didn’t want to kill me. He wanted to take me to their Director. If Leviathan wants to take me, then let them.”

Haley furrowed her brow and Lena looked up in surprise.

“You’re volunteering to be a double agent?” Haley asked, surprise filtering into her tone.

“I’m volunteering to be a bullseye,” William replied. “To paint a target on Leviathan from within. I can get close to the Director and track his location.”

“And then what?” Haley asked suspiciously.  
  


“Well, it’s your call General, but I’d suggest you launch an airstrike,” he finished confidently.

Lena’s eyes widened. He was offering to sacrifice himself to take out Leviathan? Crossing her arms over her chest, she stepped forward.

“Shouldn’t we stop and ask what Leviathan wants with you in the first place, and why they want you alive?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said William, shaking his head. “We can decimate Leviathan’s command structure with a single mission.”

Haley nodded thoughtfully from the monitor. “I see the merits. But you do recognise the danger, Agent Dey?”

William nodded. “General, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for -- the moment _we’ve_ been waiting for. A singular opportunity. Whatever the risk may be, I say it’s worth it.”

Haley nodded solemnly. “Very good. Make it work.” 

The screen went black and Lena stepped in front of Dey. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? Is this some kind of martyr thing?”

William gave her a hard stare. “You’re asking if I’d trade my life for the man who killed my wife? I would.”

He walked over to the sound proof box they kept their Leviathan communicators in and punched in the code to open it.

“What if I don’t let you?” Lena asked, walking briskly over to him, her hands clenched into tight fists.

“It’s not your choice,” he replied, opening the box and retrieving one of the phones, opening a direct line to Leviathan.

“This is William Dey. I believe you’ve been looking for me? I’m ready to come in.”

Once he was given a location to meet, he hung up the phone, replacing it in its box and turned to Lena, who had a look of horror on her face.

“It’s done.”

***

Kara pushed open the door and dropped her keys into the dish next to it. Dinner had not gone as she’d hoped, mostly because of Kelly and William _literally_ crashing their conversation, but also because of her secret.

She thought maybe she had been getting somewhere with Lena, that maybe Lena would accept her just having one secret she couldn’t tell, but if she was being honest with herself, she didn’t want to keep it from her. 

Movement on the couch caught her eye and she looked up to find Alex rising up off of it.

“Alex,” she began, knowing she needed to apologise. “Hey, look, I can explain.”

“Kara, listen to me--”

“No, look, I know exactly what you’re going to say and--and you’re absolutely right. It was completely immature of me to get everyone involved like that, especially Kelly.”

“Kara, you’re not listening--”

“And stupid too? Probably stupid is the word you’re looking for. I get it, I went too far--”

_“You didn’t go far enough, Kara!”_ Alex shouted over her rambling, effectively silencing her.

Kara’s mouth dropped open in confusion as she stared at her sister.

Alex stepped closer and cupped Kara’s face in her hands, her eyes gleaming with that sisterly sincerity that had been missing from their relationship since Kara had confessed to her true profession.

“Lena is special, Kara. I know it. You know it. We _all_ know it. So, if you love her -- if she’s _the one_ \-- then you don’t stop! You don’t quit! You never go too far! You fight and you get her back, no matter what it takes!”

Kara smiled softly, basking in the warmth of her sister’s grasp and the familiarity of her comforting advice. She had been missing it dearly since their rift, and she had to swallow harshly to stop the tears that threatened to fill her eyes. Alex slid her hands down to rest them on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eye, her own full of fire, even as a smirk graced her lips.

“You are a Danvers, Kara. Start acting like it.”

Kara nodded quickly, the fire in her heart reignited with the help of her sister.

"Thanks sis. And for the record, I'll pay you back for bailing everyone out."

Alex rolled her eyes, pulling her into a tight hug and then pushed her toward the door.

“I've got the bail, you go get the girl.”

***

“This is a suicide mission and you know it, William.” 

Lena crossed her arms over her chest as he moved about The Tower, prepping for his meeting with the Director. 

“Maybe. But it’s the only way to be sure. I have to do this. I’m sorry.”

She stepped toward him. “We can come up with another plan. It doesn’t have to be like this. If you’d slow down for a minute, we could strategise.”

He looked down at her and gave her a soft smile. “There is no other plan. But your concern is touching, Lena.”

He reached up and caressed her cheek and she resisted the urge to pull away as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. If he was going to die tonight, she didn’t really want to be the asshole that shoved him away.

Kara jogged down the stairs into the command center looking for Lena. She stopped short when she saw her, wrapped up in William’s arms, lips locked together.

They pulled apart a moment later, Lena taking a long step back, and Kara noticed her subtly wipe her mouth on her sleeve and felt a flag raise in her mind. Lena almost seemed...uncomfortable?

She didn’t have time to dwell on that though, because a second later William had pulled out a large, pill-shaped object with a red flashing light on the end and held it up.

She cleared her throat to announce her presence. “Whoa, what’s that?”

William didn’t look away from Lena when he answered. “It’s how you’ll find me. It’ll give Haley the coordinates of where to send the airstrike.”

Kara frowned in confusion. Airstrike? What was he talking about? What had she missed?

William shoved the tracker into his mouth and swallowed it down, leaving Kara to stare at him in horror.

“Wow you just--you just swallowed that thing whole, huh? No water to wash it down? That’s--that’s…”

William smirked and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Take care of her, Kara.”

Kara arched an eyebrow at him and nodded. What the hell was going on?

He grabbed his jacket and left The Tower, leaving Kara extremely confused in his wake. Turning back to Lena, she tried to get some answers.

“Where’s he going?”

Lena crossed her arms over her chest and looked at her feet, as if she knew Kara had seen them kissing and couldn’t look her in the eye.

“He’s turning himself into Leviathan. He’s leading us to them. He’s sacrificing himself.”

Kara’s eyes widened and she blanched, all words but one lost in the face of such an act.

“Oh.”

***

Nia shrugged on her jacket as she and Brainy walked out the door of the Nerd Herd after their shift. 

“I never should have let Winn borrow my van. It smells like other people now.”

Brainy nodded. “And they took the van and left us. How insulting.”

“It’s a slap in the face! Don’t they know how much stalking experience we have?”

Brainy threw an arm around her shoulders as they made their way to the van, but Nia stopped short, pointing across the parking lot to the Wienerlicious. 

“Hey, isn’t that the guy? The sexy vampire’s new boyfriend?” Brainy followed her gaze to where William was, jumping into his sports car.

Nia slapped his shoulder. “We need to prove our worth, Querl! Prove that we can stalk with the best of them! What do you say?”

She held out her fist and Brainy bumped it. “Let’s do it!”

They ran to Nia’s van and gunned it, following William into the late afternoon sun.

***

Lena brought William’s tracker online and watched it ping down the highway.

“Why is William going on a suicide mission,” Kara asked in horror. “There had to be another way to do this.”

“I don’t care what he says,” Lena replied, heading into William’s office and sitting down at his computer, “I’m not letting him go in there alone.”

Kara’s eyes widened. Hell no. There was no way she was going to let Lena chase after William on a suicide mission. If he wanted to die, fine, but Kara could not let anything happen to Lena.

She glanced down at the computer screen in front of her, pinging Dey’s location. Looking back at Lena, an idea sprung into her mind. It was stupid, and Lena would undoubtedly be mad, but she’d be safe.

Casually, so as not to draw attention to herself, she stepped over to the keyboard and brought up the DOS override screen, quickly typing in commands.

“He’s not going in alone,” she uttered, gazing at Lena. The agent looked up from her screen just as Kara pressed the Enter key. An alarm began to sound and the door to William’s office slid shut, locking Lena in.

A banner displaying **DETENTION MODE** appeared on the screen in front of Lena as she jumped out of her chair.

“Kara! What are you doing? William needs help!”

Kara stepped up to the glass door and met Lena’s eyes. “I know he does. And that’s why I’m going in to bring him back.”

Lena’s eyes widened in terror. “What?! No! The airstrike is already on its way! You’re both going to be killed! _Please,_ Kara!”

Kara said nothing, just took a moment to etch every feature of Lena’s face into her memory in case this was the last time she saw it.

Lena’s eyes filled with tears. “Why are you helping him?”

Kara paused and swallowed. 

“Because I know how much you care about him.” 

Her voice broke on the last word but she forced herself to remain in control. Of course Lena loved him. He was a handsome, brave American hero. If she could do one more thing with her life, it would be to give Lena the happiness she deserved.

As she left the room to head to the armoury, she heard Lena beating on the door and begging her not to go. 

She closed her eyes and kept walking.

***

Nia stopped the van around the corner from William’s Lotus Exige and put it in park, watching him walk up to an SUV under the overhead bridge. A man stepped out of the SUV and said something to William, guiding him around the back of the vehicle and out of her sight.

“Do you think he saw us?” She asked Brainy, who had pulled out a tape recorder and a pair of binoculars.

“There is a 0% chance,” he replied confidently. 

They watched as two more men jumped out of the SUV, heading around the back with William and the other man.

“Stalker’s Log,” Brainy spoke into the recorder, “Stalkee is behind a grey SUV with three other men, possibly for a sexual encounter. All men are physically fit. Should be lively.”

Nia grimaced. “Brainy, don’t make me be afraid to be alone with you.”

They watched as the men climbed back into the vehicle and drove away, with William nowhere in sight.

“He must be in the back,” Nia offered, putting the van in drive and following after them. “Let’s see where they’re taking him.”

***

William parked his car in the underpass and joined the agent beside his vehicle.

“Glad you could make it,” said the agent with a sneer. “The Director is expecting you.” He gestured behind the van and William reluctantly followed him.

As soon as he passed, two more agents jumped out of the SUV and pinned him to the back of the vehicle. 

“Frisk him,” the lead agent ordered. The two agents complied and when they found him unarmed, they ripped open his shirt. 

The lead agent held up a small device that William recognised from the surveillance footage from the morgue. 

“In case you swallowed a tracker,” the agent explained waving the device over his torso. “I tend to err on the side of caution.”

A sharp pain shot through his body beginning at his stomach. It felt like someone had stuck a knife into his gut and was slowly dragging it up toward his throat. He cried out in agony as the pain intensified.

“Ugh, they’re much quieter when they’re dead,” the agent quipped.

William gasped and choked as the device pulled the tracker up through his esophagus and into his mouth, where the agent reached in and grabbed it.

“Well well, what do we have here,” he taunted, holding the tracker up for all to see. Then he tossed it onto the pavement and smiled.

“Now we can go see the Director,” he said, gesturing to the two agents holding him. They shoved him unceremoniously into the back of the SUV and sped off down the street.

***

Lena paced around William’s office, trying to find a way out. She didn’t have Kara’s computer skills, so there was no way she was hacking her way out. All communication had been cut off from this room. She was truly stuck. If she wasn’t so angry with Kara, she would have allowed herself to be impressed with Kara's courage, touched by her concern, and terrified for her life. 

As it was, she was allowing her fury to take the driver’s seat so she didn’t have to think about those other things. Like how she hadn’t taken the blonde up on her offer to go to Rome, so now she was likely going to die saving a man that Lena did not care about. At least, not the way she cared about Kara.

She shoved the thought down. First things first: find a way out. She sighed. If only Hank were still on the team, he would be able to--

_Hank_. 

She ran to William’s computer and pulled up the cameras in the Nerd Herd, flicking through the screens until she found him. He was on the sales floor, showing a product to a customer. She grinned and jumped up onto the desk, finding the wiring conduit that connected to the store’s lighting.

Pulling up the wiring diagram on William’s computer, she quickly traced her way down to what she hoped were the right wires and cut them apart, touching them together in Morse Code.

… --- …

… --- … 

… --- … 

Over and over again, she sent the SOS message, waiting for Hank to notice the code, her eyes never leaving the surveillance footage. 

She saw when the lightbulb went off above his head and grinned. She could save Kara. She could save them both.

Hank came barrelling into The Tower a few minutes later, a look of confusion on his normally scowling face.

“Hey I’m here,” he said, typing in the code to open the doors to the office.

“Oh thank god,” she said, exhaling deeply. “I haven’t used Morse Code since basic training.”

“I use it all the time to talk to my Marine buddies. Anyway, what happened?”

Lena ran to the computer and pulled up William’s tracker on the computer. 

“William gave himself up to the Leviathan Director and Kara locked me in here because she knew I would try to rescue him and Haley is going to bomb the location.”

“And William dies an American hero,” Hank finished.

“And Kara with him,” Lena added frantically. “But not if I can help it.”

She pinged the location of William’s tracker and sighed in relief. “Okay he’s still on the move.” She grabbed her guns and turned to Hank.

“Thank you, Hank...but I can’t leave you in here alone anymore. I’m sorry.”

She turned and headed up the stairs and didn’t hear Hank follow her immediately. “ _Now_ , Hank.”

She heard him grumble and stomp up the stairs after her, but she didn’t even have time to smirk at his antics. Kara was in trouble.

***

Kara pulled up to the location of William’s tracker and looked around. The ping hadn’t moved from this location in quite some time, and upon further scrutiny, she saw his Lotus parked under the bridge, but no sign of him.

She searched the area, and finally found the tracker, sitting in a puddle of saliva and stomach acid.

“Blech,” she groaned, tapping it with her toe. So William wasn’t here and she had no way of locating him, and the General was going to send an airstrike to bomb an empty underpass. Great.

Grabbing a napkin out of her car, she grabbed the tracker and put it in her pocket. If by some miracle she found him, she would need Haley to be able to track her location. But how was she to find him now?

Her phone rang and she saw Nia on the caller ID.

“Nia, I’m in the middle of something right now, I can’t really talk.”

_“Oh yeah, no worries buddy. I, too, am a little bit busy stalking Lena’s new stallion.”_

Kara’s heart stopped. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

_“Hang up the phone,”_ she heard Brainy chime in. _“We’ve been insulted enough.”_

“Wait wait no!!” Kara cried, desperate to keep them on the line. “You guys are stalking Lena’s new stallion, you said?”

_“Yes, and on our off time, Kara. To show you what amateurs you’ve been working with.”_

Kara rolled her eyes, but her heart leapt. If they could be trusted to have stalked correctly, she could find him!

“Can you see him right now?”

_“Nah, we’re tucked behind a dumpster, but it looks like Mr. Fancy Pants and some frat guys were heading into some dingy warehouse or something.”_

_“Dude is into some kinky stuff,”_ Brainy added helpfully.

“Okay listen Nia, I need you to tell me where you are _right now,_ ” Kara demanded, her patience wearing thin.

_“The corner of Second and Cordova, looks like.”_

Kara thanked her and hung up the phone, heading back to the Nerd Herder. She stopped short and looked over at William’s much faster Lotus Exige, the keys still in the ignition, and grinned, jumping over the door and into the seat, gunning the engine and taking off down the highway.

***

When she spotted Nia’s van parked against the curb, Kara pulled to a stop behind it, leaping out of the convertible. She spotted the pair peering around the side of a building and ran toward them, zipping up her jacket to cover her bulletproof vest and holsters.

“Hey, where is he?” She called, jogging up to them.

“Nice to see you too,” Nia greeted dryly, gesturing toward an old warehouse across the way. “Suspects have entered the building.”

Kara’s heart jumped up. They had actually tracked William! 

“That is incredible. You guys are like the most prolific stalkers I have ever seen. I’m gonna tell my grandchildren about you!”

Brainy grinned and produced a pair of nunchakus and brass knuckles from his coat. “Need to borrow some weaponry?”

Kara’s mouth dropped open dumbly. “Why would you even have--no, no thank you. While I appreciate it, Brainy, I don’t believe in violence.”

“Soooo...should they give you a beatdown,” Nia asked slowly, “do you expect us to have your back?”

“No that’s--”

“Okay, see you later!”

She and Brainy shuffled off to her van and Kara waited for them to drive away before unzipping her jacket and tossing it back into the car, before heading inside the warehouse.

She drew her tranq guns as she entered, but found the building surprisingly empty. All that it contained was an old soda machine labeled ‘Dr. Jibb’, which she had never even heard of.

As she looked at the buttons to dispense a drink, she noticed they were all for the same obscure soda and immediately began to flash -- a wiring diagram and a coded sequence were brought to her eyes. 

“Oh wow.”

She pressed the buttons in the order she had seen them in her flash and a whirring sound caught her attention. The ground shifted beneath her feet and the platform the vending machine rested on began to drop down an elevator-like shaft. Kara yelped in surprise and quickly spun around to grip the machine to keep herself steady.

The platform came to a rest in a long, brightly lit hallway, completely white from floor to ceiling. It felt sterile and cold to Kara as she stepped off the platform, raising her tranq pistol. It was eerily quiet, nothing but the sound of her chucks echoing off the ground.

William was around here somewhere, and that meant there would be Leviathan operatives too. She needed to be ready for anything.

***

William found himself shunted along a brightly lit corridor by the two Leviathan agents from earlier until they came to a door at the end. Opening the door, they shoved him through the entrance and immediately slammed it closed behind him, leaving him in total darkness.

A singular, bright beam of light lit up the very center of the room and he cautiously moved toward it, wary of the tense silence that permeated the atmosphere.

“Welcome, William.”

William’s head shot up, searching for the source of the voice.

A tall, thin man stepped slowly into the edge of the light, still cast in shadow so that William could not quite make out his face.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you for a long time.”

William squared his jaw and pushed his shoulders back. “If you’re gonna kill me, then get it over with.”

“I don’t want to kill you, William,” the Director replied, “I want to educate you.”

The Director pressed a button on his phone and a small platform rose up out of the ground next to the agent, a flashdrive sitting on top next to a USB port.

“What is this?” William asked in confusion.

“A gift,” the Director replied with a smirk. “The answer to what you’ve been seeking all these years.”

William reached out for the thumbdrive hesitantly, then quickly grabbed it, shoving it into the port. Screens lit up on the walls all around them, and it became apparent why the room was so dark. The Director was creating the right movie theatre-like atmosphere for him to watch the video play out.

William felt tears prick his eyes as the video began. A beautiful blonde woman stared at the camera smiling, yet shying away here and there as a dog bounced around her feet barking.

“Eve,” he uttered brokenly.

_“He loves you,”_ came his own voice from the home video. 

_“Happy Birthday,”_ said Eve on the screen, and William felt his heart crack in two. 

The video cut to a little while later, with Eve trying to push the camera away from her, laughing. _“Okay my turn! Gimme the camera! Maybe it was a bad idea to get you a video camera for your birthday.”_

William took in her bright blue eyes that had always been full of laughter, her long luscious blonde hair that he had loved running his fingers through, her face-splitting smile that crinkled her eyes and made his heart pound. Tears filled his eyes as he stared longingly at his dead wife in her happiest moments.

“Your wife was quite beautiful,” said the Director softly. 

_“Now you’re just wasting tape! You’re ridiculous!”_

“How--how did you get this?” William stuttered out wetly.

“We have lots of information on Eve,” he replied. “Just watch, William. It’s time you learned the truth about your wife’s murder.”

As he looked back toward the screens, Eve’s smiling face disappeared and the happy scene he had been watching changed to a much darker one. This one was obviously surveillance camera footage, taken at night by lamppost light, but he could still see quite clearly the face of his wife as she walked down a small street.

A figure with long dark hair walked toward Eve, their back to the camera.

William watched as Eve dropped something and knelt down to retrieve it. As she stood, the dark haired figure pulled out a gun and shot her. Eve fell to the pavement, arms outstretched, her long blonde hair fanned out on the pavement like a halo.

The figure turned quickly as if they had heard something -- sirens, perhaps -- and William looked upon the familiar face of his wife’s killer.

_Lena._

_“_ ** _NO!_ ** _”_ He screamed in agony. This couldn’t be real. Not Lena. Not _Lena_. “No! _No!_ ”

“This must be so difficult for you,” the Director murmured. 

William turned to the man, eyes full of fury, rage sitting cold in his chest, and ran at him, throwing a punch that sailed right through.

He was a hologram. All this time he had been taunting William and he wasn’t even really here.

_“You didn’t really think I’d come here in person, did you?”_ The Directors’ voice echoed around the room as the hologram reformatted itself. _“I’ll be in touch, William.”_

William stood in the middle of the room, panting, until an arm reached out of the darkness and shoved a taser into his neck, plunging him into a darkness of his own.

***

Kara peered around the corner as she reached the end of the hall. She spotted one rogue operative and quickly tranq’d him. _Didn’t even need to flash_ , she noted to herself with pride. She made her way down the hallway toward the body, assuming if there were agents around, she must be getting close to where they were keeping William.

“Freeze!” A voice behind her called from the other end of the hallway.

She turned quickly and saw a pair of Leviathan operatives walking down the hall toward her, guns drawn and pointed at her.

“Drop it,” one ordered.

She dropped her tranq to the ground, and as the agent bent down to retrieve it, she began to flash, downloading hand-to-hand combat skills.

The agent tucked her gun into his waistband and reached for her arm to cuff her, but she quickly grabbed his, twisting it until she heard a pop.

He cried out in agony and fell against her, accidentally pulling one of her flashbang grenades off of her vest. She landed a hard punch to his temple and kicked him away, where he fell to the ground, the canister rolling out of his hand, pin removed.

She and the second agent stared down at it for a moment, then shared a look of pained resignation, before Kara squeezed her eyes closed and shoved her fingers into her ears to try to minimize the effects of the blast.

It didn’t help much.

She tried to regain composure as the ringing in her ears continued, working her jaw up and down to clear her hearing, and blinking quickly.

The agent next to her clearly hadn’t even tried to cover his ears as he was swiping the air blindly looking for her, but was doubled over in pain. 

She staggered towards him and took advantage of his predicament, laying him out with one punch.

Allowing herself just another moment to clear her head, she retrieved her gun from the Leviathan agent and then made her way down the hall, checking doors until she came to a dark room with a single beam of light shining down in the center of it.

There, in that single beam of light, lay William sprawled out on the floor, unconscious.

As Kara grabbed onto his arms and began dragging him out the door and back to the soda platform, she heard a faintly thunderous whooshing sound that proceeded to get louder as she moved. 

_The airstrike was on its way._

***

Lena pulled the car to a screeching halt outside of the warehouse. Kara and William were somewhere inside and she could hear the F-22 approaching. There wasn’t much time.

She sprinted toward the door as the earsplitting peal of the engines approached. 

She was halfway to the door when the plane flew overhead and dropped the bomb, the blast decimating the building and throwing her backward off her feet.

Lena coughed and turned over, pulling herself up onto her knees and turned her head toward the blast site.

The building was gone, the entire structure engulfed in flames.

_“No!”_ She screamed in horror, tears streaming down her face. Kara was gone. She had to be, no one could have survived that blast -- they were bunker blaster missiles for God’s sake!

"No, no, God _please_ no…"

All the air left her lungs in a rush and she found herself unable to catch her breath as she rocked back and forth, her arms wrapped around her stomach, as if she were trying to hold herself together so she wouldn't shatter to pieces.

A banging noise caught her attention and she looked up to see an oddly shaped figure pushing through the debris.

_No, it couldn’t be…_

She stared in disbelief as a battered and ash-covered Kara emerged from the flames with William over her shoulder.

Relief unlike anything she had ever felt flooded through her system, pulling air back into her lungs and life back into her limbs. Shakily climbing to her feet, she raced over to the blonde and pulled her into an awkward hug, as tightly as she could with William’s body still between them.

“I’m okay. He’s okay. I think they tased him.”

Lena just nodded and kept hugging her. She felt Kara shifting against her.

“This is very nice, Lena, but your boyfriend’s kinda heavy.”

Lena’s eyes shot open and she pulled back, the reality of the situation they were still in hitting her. “Right. Sorry.” 

She thought about correcting Kara on the boyfriend thing, but now wasn't really the time. They needed to get out of there. 

She helped Kara carry William over to the car and headed toward the nearest hospital to drop him off, then headed back to The Tower.

***

“Congratulations, Agent Luthor,” said Haley from the monitor. “You destroyed a Leviathan compound, hopefully eliminating some of their higher ups, and you managed to rescue Agent Dey. Once again, you and your team prevailed.”

Lena smiled and bowed her head slightly. “I can’t take any of the credit, General. It was all Kara. She saved William by herself.”

General Haley inclined her head. “Duly noted. Well, Agent Luthor, it’s been a highly memorable few years in National City. I look forward to working face to face with you in Washington. Have a safe flight.”

Kara leaned against the entrance to the command center and listened as Lena sang her praises and Haley reminded her of her job in Washington. So that was it then...she hadn’t managed to win Lena back. Lena wanted William, she was going to Washington, and Kara would have to figure out some way to live with that.

She cleared her throat. “How’s William doing?”

Lena turned to her and gave her a soft, but genuine smile. Something that Kara hadn’t seen in a long time. 

“He’s still unconscious but the doctors say he’ll make a full recovery...thanks to you.” 

Kara watched as Lena rose from her chair and came to stand in front of her, her features soft and open.

“Well--well he would have done the same for me, I’m sure.” (She wasn’t.)

Lena smiled at her, no sign of that cold anger or thinly veiled hurt that her eyes had contained since Prague and Kara was reminded of Alex’s words. 

You don’t stop.

You don’t quit.

You never go too far.

She sighed, reaching down deep for that patented Danvers courage that she needed and took a step forward.

“Look, I don’t want to pester you, Lena, or become some--some nuisance that you can’t avoid. I’ve seen Winn go down that road far too many times to count,” she added with a laugh. Lena’s eyes danced with mirth and she took that as a good sign to keep going.

“And since I’ve already given the fancy eloquent version of this speech before, right now I’m just going to be blunt and honest.”

She watched Lena’s face carefully as it shifted into something a little more guarded, as if scared of what she would say. 

She took a deep breath in. 

“Lena, I love you.”

Lena’s lips parted slightly and Kara heard her breath hitch slightly.

“One more time just because it feels nice to say: _I love you_.”

She sighed in relief at the feeling of getting it off of her chest. “Oh god, I feel like I’ve been bottling this up forever. _I_. _Love_. _You_.”

Lena’s cheeks were painted red with a light flush as she cast her eyes down and cut in, “Kara you don’t have to--”

“No wait, I’m sorry!” She put her hands up in a placating manner. “I’m sorry, I’m getting out of hand. But...look, you were right in Prague. You and me? We’re perfect for each other and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, away from everyone else and away from the spy life.”

Lena shifted from foot to foot, as if she were unsure of what answer she wanted to give.

“Kara, I’ve made a commitment to Haley--”

“Don’t go,” Kara interrupted, taking a step closer. “Don’t do it. Leave with me instead. Tonight, 7:00, National City Station, we get on a train and go to Mexico, and after that anywhere that you want."

She paused for a moment to let her words sink in as Lena stood in front of her, dumbstruck.

"I would, however, like to go and see the Eiffel Tower at some point, if that’s at all possible,” she added with a small smile. 

Lena opened her mouth and Kara cut her off with a soft finger to her lips, soft and plush under her touch. “Don’t answer now. Don’t say a word. I don’t want to have to convince you. I just want you to show up.”

She stared down into Lena’s blue-green eyes, shimmering in the fluorescent lights, soft and round and full of emotion. She reached out and cupped her cheek, taking that last step to bring them face to face, breathing the same air.

“I’m going to kiss you now, if that’s okay?”

She waited a moment for Lena to back away, to say no, to say this wasn’t what she wanted, and when Lena did none of those she gently cupped both sides of her face and pulled her into a soft kiss, nothing more than a warm press of lips at first, until she felt the agent relax into it and slot their lips together into something more firm and intimate, their combined heat radiating down Kara's body.

They stayed like that for a while. Maybe a minute, maybe an hour -- Kara couldn’t have told you. The only concept she could focus on was every point of contact their bodies were making, from their lips, to the feel of her cheeks and neck under the pads of her fingers, to the places where her elbows brushed against Lena’s arms.

When they finally pulled apart, she didn’t let go of Lena’s face right away, opting to lean her forehead against hers, letting her eyes stay closed for a moment longer, as if she could keep this moment forever as long as she didn’t open them.

“I’m going to go home and pack,” she whispered, “both summer and winter wear.”

Pulling back, she gazed down into Lena’s eyes, filled with unshed tears, and tried to make her own convey the depths of what she felt for the agent to her.

“I love you, Lena Luthor. I always have.”

And without another word or backward glance, she left the Tower to begin packing, praying that Lena would choose her, the way Kara should have chosen her in Prague.

***

As the setting sun filtered in through her blinds, Lena packed her bags, the ghost of Kara's kiss still tangible on her lips.

She tried not to think about the fact that she had no idea which destination she was packing for, or the fact that she had packed and unpacked the same bag with different clothes at least three times. 

Her heart was pulling her toward Mexico, her sense of duty and self-preservation in the face of what had happened in Prague was pulling her toward Washington. Could she trust Kara with her heart again? Could she give in? Kara wasn’t the same person that she had fallen in love with, was she? She was...tainted in some way.

Wasn't she?

Lena knew she was being hypocritical. She, herself, was a killer, so why did she expect more from the blonde?

_Because Kara was better than her. Better than all of them._ _Because she cared. Because she always did everything she could to avoid casualties. Because Kara had hope and integrity and she never wanted to see that go away._

She had never wanted Kara to be capable of doing something like that, of taking a life. Seeing Kara standing over the mole with her gun raised had broken something inside of her -- had hurt her in a way that she thought impossible after Prague. 

It had broken her heart.

She couldn't help but feel like this was all her fault. Kara had said as much that night, that she wouldn't be here without Lena. Lena had been the one cheering her on, telling her she could do anything, that she could be a real spy. But all of that encouragement had led the blonde to the moment where she had been forced to take a life. 

And now, Lena, in her pain and self-hatred, in order to try to tamp down on the giant pile of blame she was piling onto herself, was creating a double standard for herself vs. Kara. 

But was she _really_ going to let her own hypocrisy and self-loathing stand in the way of their happiness? 

Lena sighed loudly. 

Sometimes she really hated herself. Sometimes she didn't understand why Kara didn't hate her too.

A knock at her door pulled her out of her spiraling thoughts, and she paused in her packing to answer it.

It was Hank.

“You got a second?” He grunted from the doorway.

“Uh, yeah. Sure, come on in.” She pulled the door open wider to admit him entrance to her suite. 

She followed him deeper into the room, waiting for him to speak, but he stayed silent.

“Can I get you a drink or anything?”

That seemed to pull him out of his reverie. “No, no I can’t stay. I just wanted to come by and tell you something about Kara.”

Lena stiffened slightly at the mention of the blonde. “Well, if you came to plead her case, then that’s really not necessary.”

Hank shook his head, finally turning to face her. “No, no she didn’t send me. She doesn’t know I’m here. I just wanted to tell you something, in case it changed anything.”

He paused, taking a deep breath and letting his eyes fall closed, as if preparing for some kind of backlash to his words, and Lena briefly wondered what the hell he was about to say that had him so rattled.

“She didn’t kill the mole.”

Lena’s mouth dropped open and her heart stopped in place. 

“What?” 

Hank squared his shoulders. “I did.”

Lena couldn’t feel her fingers. Kara hadn’t killed anyone?

He continued. “She didn’t have the stones to pull the trigger. Kid’s not a killer. Just not wired that way...unlike us. Just thought you should know.”

Hank waited for a moment, face stoic, as if he was waiting for a reprimand or worse, and when none came he brushed past her toward the door. “See ya around.”

Finally, Lena’s body seemed to catch up to the moment and she whirled around, a smile dancing across her face.

“Hank?”

He stopped and turned to her, an eyebrow raised. “Yeah?”

She tried to tamp down the smile that was aching to spread across every inch of her face.

“Thank you.”

Hank looked as though perhaps he was suppressing a smile of his own as he grunted in acknowledgment. 

“Well you have a nice life, Luthor.”

As the door closed behind him, Lena let the smile burst forth onto her lips, as sweet relief and unfiltered love bloomed in her heart. That was what Kara had wanted to tell her but couldn’t. That she hadn’t actually killed the mole. 

She was covering for Hank. 

Of course it was another selfless act, because that was who Kara was. The paragon of hope, the spitting image of integrity, and a pillar of courage. 

And the woman that she was going to spend the rest of her life with, if it wasn't too late for her to ask for forgiveness.

She hurried back to her suitcase, pulling out all business attire and tossing them on the floor, her decision made.

What did one take to Mexico?

***

An hour later, her bag was packed and she wheeled it over to the door, the smile not having left her face the entire time. It was 6:30, Kara would be waiting for her at the station. The thought made her chest bloom with possibility and hope. Could they really do this? Could they actually have their happily ever after? Lena had never been one to believe in such things, but it seemed as though fate had taken a direct interest in her life, guiding her back to the blonde over and over again, as if they were entangled on an atomic level.

As she reached for the door handle, she paused reaching into her purse and withdrawing her pistol. There would be no need for it anymore. She smiled softly and tossed it onto the bed.

A loud bang from behind her had her turning quickly to see what the noise was.

The door had been kicked off its hinges, and there, standing in the doorway, was William.

“William?” She said with confusion in her voice.

He crossed the room with long strides until he stood in front of her. 

“Hey, Washington will have to wait. We’ve got a lead on The Director. I have the details in the car, come on.”

Lena’s mind went straight to Kara, the thought of her standing on the platform, crestfallen when Lena didn’t show.

“I--I have to call Kara,” she stammered out, shaking her head.

William shook his head. “There’s no time, you can call her from the car.” 

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door.

***

Kara was trying very hard not to break down. It was 7:15 and Lena had not shown up, nor had she called, or texted, and the depression was creeping in. 

Why had she thought Lena would come with her? Why would she ever choose Kara when she had a hero like William to compare to? William hadn’t left her heartbroken on a train platform in Prague. William was a spy, he was brave, he had a cool accent. In what world did a woman like Lena choose her over someone like that?

Her phone dinged with a new text alert and she fumbled with it, thinking maybe it was Lena.

**Text from G. Haley: REPORT TO THE TOWER ASAP!**

Kara sighed and headed to the exit. 

Might as well. Lena clearly wasn’t coming.

***

She jogged down the steps into the command center and pulled up General Haley’s video conference. She noted with confusion that Lena was not in the command center with her.

“Kara! We have an urgent situation regarding Agent Luthor! Our forensic team was able to recover this video from the wreckage of Leviathan’s bunker.”

A video of a beautiful blonde woman popped up onto the screen. She was smiling and laughing and wishing someone a happy birthday. The video was corrupted here and there, but Kara was still able to make out her face clearly. She had no idea who the woman was.

“The woman is Agent Evelyn Dey,” Haley explained, a tremor in her voice. “William Dey’s deceased wife.”

Kara stared at the video in confusion. “Well, this is all very touching, General, but what does it have to do with Lena?”

“Keep watching,” Haley ordered. “The data drive that Leviathan recovered from the mole’s body? We now believe it contained footage of a Red Test conducted on the night of Agent Dey’s death.”

The video shifted to a new scene, darker and a little grainier, but Kara could still easily make out Eve walking down a dark street, then a figure approaching, Eve bending down to pick something up, followed by a muzzle flash and then --

“Oh my God.”

Lena. Lena had killed William’s wife? 

“Did you know about this?” She asked Haley angrily, panic rising in her breast.

“I assure you, I had no knowledge that Agent Luthor was responsible for Eve Dey’s death.”

Kara’s breaths were coming in pants, her shoulders rising and falling quickly.

“If William has seen this -- if Leviathan played him this video…Oh my God. Oh my _God_ , General, where is Lena now?!”

“We believe that she is with Agent Dey,” Haley replied, her voice tense and eyes stony. “Do you have any idea where he might have taken her?”

Kara wracked her brain, but there was nothing. She really knew nothing about Dey, let alone where he would think to take Lena to potentially kill her.

“I have no clue, General. Please, we have to find her!”

Haley nodded curtly. “Just sit tight, Kara. We’ll get her back.”

The screen blinked off and Kara began pacing, running her hands through her hair in a panic. There was no way she could just sit tight. Lena was gone with a man who wanted her dead. 

She was going to get her back, no matter what it took. The question was how?

***

Lena held her phone aloft out of the convertible, still trying to get a signal. They’d been driving for nearly an hour and she still had no bars. 

“Still don’t have a signal,” she muttered, turning to face the man next to her. “William, where are you taking us?”

William looked at her for a moment, then turned back to the road, his eyes piercing in the dying light of the day. He glanced down at his wedding band and took a deep breath. 

“To settle an old score.”

***


End file.
